Curious Cook: Ice cream and metabolic syndrome

The columnist’s homemade ice cream does not require the use of an ice-cream maker. — CHRIS CHAN

Someone asked recently about how food consumption patterns would change as the world warms up due to man-made climate change. As it is a long, difficult subject to discuss even when sober (and I was already past my fourth glass of wine), I jokingly suggested that the consumption of ice cream would probably increase exponentially. And everyone smiled and thought it was a good answer.

But later I realised that an increase in the consumption of modern ice cream (and many other processed foods) would probably lead to an increase in humans suffering from metabolic syndrome. This syndrome refers to a group of risk factors that increase the chances of disease development and normally refers to factors such as obesity, hypertension, insulin resistance, etc.