Unable to stand the thought of going four hours without food on a flight home to Salt Lake, Congressman Chris Cannon saw an ice cream parlor and knew he had to have a milkshake.

He had blown his diet and said he felt guilty. But, when his plane finally landed in Utah, he wasn't hungry and felt great.

This sparked the beginning of Cannon's own "ice cream diet", which lasted for more than a year and brought him tremendous weight-loss success.

"I would have a milkshake mid-afternoon and that would get me through until some kind of light dinner," Cannon said.

Two years ago when Cannon first began the diet, he had been working to lose weight, he said.

"I lost about 30 pounds within the last year from the diet," Cannon said. "I have felt great."

The congressman has since moved on from his diet of milkshakes and ice cream for lunch, but occasionally he will have a milkshake when he's short on time.

"I've hit a plateau," Cannon said. "I'm now trying to figure out the next way to lose the additional 30 pounds."

Five years ago, a book titled "The Ice Cream Diet", was written in response to a Prevention magazine website poll.

The poll asked viewers "if you could have a daily splurge, which food would you choose?" One-third of the people who responded said ice cream.

The author of the book, former nutrition editor for Prevention Magazine, Holly McCord, said she designed menu plans for men and women which allowed for 1 cup of ice cream for women and 1 1/2 cups for men every day.

According to the book, women should consume 1,500 calories per day, while men should consume 2,000 on the diet -- including the ice cream.

In her book, McCord said the best part about the diet is the benefits people gain from eating ice cream each day.

The recommended daily amount of calcium is 1,000-1,500 milligrams, which a daily bowl of ice cream will provide, McCord said.

She said the diet would help keep a person's blood pressure numbers at a healthy range due to the fluid-regulating minerals found in ice cream -- sodium, calcium, potassium and magnesium.

The ice cream diet does not focus solely on the tasty dairy product, McCord said. It also calls for eight servings of fruits and veggies every day and a regular exercise routine.

While dairy products do provide nutritious benefit, a person should really focus their diet on portions and balance, said Lynn Ogden, professor in the Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Science department of BYU.

"I'm a dairy man," Ogden said. "But I would never encourage someone to center their diet around ice cream."

Ogden said that, like every other food, ice cream is fine in moderation. Eat ice cream as a treat and enjoy it, but don't overindulge, he said.

His colleague, Susan Fullmer, said she agreed that moderation and balance is key to a good diet.

"Ice cream every day is too high in fat and calories," Fullmer said. "In terms of weight loss, it's calories in and calories out."



Copyright Brigham Young University 5 Nov 2007