The Lazy Way To Make Banana “Ice Cream” Doesn’t Require A Blender

From plantbasednews.org

Just freeze, thaw, and grab a fork 

Anyone who loves banana “nice cream” knows the least appealing part often comes after dessert: cleaning the equipment. Raw vegan advocate Dr Doug Graham has found a considerably simpler solution. In a video shared by fellow raw vegan creator Chris Kendall of The Raw Advantage, Graham explains why frozen and thawed bananas have become his favourite way to enjoy the fruit.

Kendall and Graham both share lifestyle, health, fitness, and nutrition tips through their online platforms. But Graham’s banana ritual is not really about optimizing nutrition. It starts with a much simpler motivation: he loves bananas, he loves ice cream, and frozen and thawed bananas give him something close to both.

Why Graham freezes his bananas

Freezing and thawing bananas may make them taste noticeably sweeter, Dr. Doug Graham says, even though the fruit itself hasn’t gained any additional sugar - Media Credit: Adobe Stock

Graham tells Kendall that he grew up eating plenty of ice cream and still enjoys its texture. He has made banana ice cream before, but the clean-up made the process less appealing. “It was kind of cool making ice cream out of bananas,” Graham says, “but it’s not that cool cleaning the machinery.” His alternative requires no blender at all. He freezes peeled bananas, removes them from the freezer and lets them partially thaw before eating them with a fork.

The thawing time depends heavily on the temperature around him. Graham says it can take around two and a half hours during winter at home. In summer, he says the process may take about 20 minutes. In Costa Rica, he says it can take roughly 10 minutes.

He also stacks the bananas so air can circulate around their exposed edges. That helps them soften more evenly than a tightly packed frozen pile. Graham says the bananas begin thawing from the ends, allowing him to eat inward as each section reaches his preferred consistency.

“When I let them thaw, the texture becomes pretty much ice cream,” he says. “I’m eating one forkful of ice cream at a time.”

For Graham, that texture is central to the appeal. The method gives him a chilled, creamy dessert experience without processing the bananas into a separate dish.

Why the bananas taste sweeter

Texture is only part of Graham’s explanation. He also says freezing affects the banana’s cells and changes how its sugars are experienced when eaten.

“When I freeze a banana, the cells of the banana burst,” Graham says. He explains that once the fruit thaws, the glucose inside becomes more accessible. According to Graham, that makes the banana taste noticeably sweeter, even though it has not actually gained more sugar.

“It tastes sweeter. It’s not sweeter, but it tastes sweeter,” he says.

Graham notes that the effect remains even if the banana completely returns to room temperature. However, he does not recommend waiting that long for texture. Fully thawed bananas become what he describes as “very dense and sluggish mush,” which he finds less appealing.

His preference sits somewhere between frozen solid and fully thawed. The outside becomes soft enough for a fork, while the centre remains chilled and slightly firm. Later in the video, he demonstrates the ideal stage for Kendall.

“It’s the perfect texture,” Graham says. “It releases so much more flavour.”

He says a fork should slide through the banana with only slight pressure. If the fruit remains hard enough that pressing it leaves no dent, Graham considers it too frozen.

Graham says freezing may also change the fibre

Graham also discusses what he believes happens to banana fibre during freezing and thawing. He says he was originally taught that fibre was indigestible, but later learned that gut microorganisms can digest some fibres.

“The fibres aren’t digestible by human beings,” Graham says. “But the fibres are digestible by the microbes inside of human beings.”

He says freezing and thawing changes the fibres in a way that makes them more accessible to those microorganisms. Graham adds that this process may make “a little more glucose and a little more protein” available than eating the banana at room temperature.

However, he repeatedly stresses that this nutritional discussion is not why he prepares bananas this way. For him, the decision is driven by enjoyment rather than nutritional calculations.

“Please understand, I’m not doing it for that reason,” Graham says. “I’m not in the least concerned about the nutrition.”

Although he says he knows the nutritional value of bananas, Graham emphasizes that pleasure comes first. “I’m eating the banana because I really like banana,” he says. “And I really like ice cream.”

That distinction makes his habit unusually uncomplicated. The potential nutritional changes interest him, but they are not the selling point. He wants a banana that tastes sweeter and feels more like dessert.

His preferred way to eat most bananas

Graham estimates that about three-quarters of the bananas he eats during the year are prepared this way. He typically freezes around 10 to 12 bananas in a freezer bag, depending on its size. Some bags, he says, can hold 14.

Once he empties a bag, he shakes out any ice inside, refills it with bananas and returns it to the freezer. “It’s a pretty clean system,” Graham says.

Cleanliness is another reason he prefers using a fork rather than making banana ice cream. He eats the softening ends first and works toward the colder centre. He even jokes about treating the stacked bananas like Jenga and trying to finish them without collapsing the pile.

“I’m having fun with my food,” Graham says.

When Kendall eventually tries the method himself, Graham directs him toward the softer portions sticking out from the stack. Graham’s own ideal banana remains chilled, slightly firm and soft enough to cut using the side of a fork.

For anyone accustomed to blending frozen bananas into dessert, frozen and thawed bananas offer a far simpler variation. Graham’s method requires little more than a freezer, some patience, and a fork. More importantly, his enthusiasm comes back to something refreshingly basic: he thinks they taste good.

For more lifestyle tips and info about the benefits of raw food nutrition, check out Kendall’s YouTube channel, The Raw Advantage, or Graham’s channel, FoodnSport with Dr. Doug Graham.

https://plantbasednews.org/lifestyle/food/frozen-and-thawed-bananas/

Low-fat vegan diet may help people lose weight without eating less, say researchers

From babushahi.com

Washington DC [US], August 18, 2026  (ANI): A low-fat vegan diet may support weight loss without the need to count calories, reduce portion sizes, or constantly battle hunger. In a 16-week clinical trial, participants following a diet centred on fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes consumed around 357 fewer calories per day, despite eating nearly the same amount of food overall.

A low-fat vegan diet can reduce the energy density of the foods people eat by about 30%, helping them consume fewer calories while still eating satisfying amounts of food. The approach was also associated with weight loss, even though participants were not instructed to restrict calories, according to new research published in JAMA Network Open.

In a randomised clinical trial involving adults with overweight, participants who followed an ad libitum low-fat vegan diet substantially reduced the number of calories per gram of food they consumed. Researchers found that greater reductions in energy density were tied to lower calorie intake and greater weight loss, despite the absence of any instructions to eat less.

"This helps answer a question people often have about plant-based eating: How can you lose weight without counting calories or going hungry?" said Hana Kahleova, MD, PhD, director of clinical research at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and lead author. "The answer is energy density. Plant foods are rich in water and fibre, so you can fill your plate, feel full, and still take in fewer calories," as quoted on the Science Daily website.

How the Low-Fat Vegan Diet Was Tested

According to the website, the findings come from an analysis of a 16-week randomised trial involving adults with overweight. Participants were assigned either to an ad libitum low-fat vegan diet centred on fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes, or to a control group that continued eating as usual without making any dietary changes.

Neither group was given a calorie target or told to limit how much they ate. Researchers measured each participant's dietary energy density by comparing total daily energy intake with the total weight of food consumed, expressed as total energy (kcal per day) divided by total food weight (grams per day).

The study produced several notable findings:

The total weight of food consumed did not change significantly in either group, meaning those following the vegan diet continued eating about the same amount of food by weight.

Calorie intake declined in both groups, but the decrease was larger among those following the vegan diet, at about 357 kcal/day.

Energy density remained essentially unchanged in the control group but fell by about 30% in the vegan group.

Larger reductions in energy density were associated with greater weight loss, and that relationship remained even after researchers accounted for changes in calorie intake.

Same Amount of Food, Fewer Calories

The difference came largely from changes in the types of foods participants were eating. The vegan diet removed calorie-dense animal foods including meat, dairy, and eggs while increasing consumption of foods that provide more volume for relatively few calories, particularly vegetables and legumes.

Because these plant foods generally contain fewer calories per gram, participants could continue eating generous portions while taking in less energy overall.

"This isn't about willpower or smaller portions," Dr. Kahleova said. "It's about choosing foods that naturally deliver fewer calories in every bite. A 30% reduction in energy density is a substantial shift that would be very hard to achieve and sustain through portion control alone."

Why Energy Density Can Affect Weight Loss

Energy density refers to the number of calories contained in each gram of food. Scientists have studied it for years because it can influence how much people eat and how satisfied they feel after a meal.

Controlled feeding studies have shown that reducing the energy density of meals can help people feel full while lowering the amount of energy they consume. Importantly, the physical volume of food can remain similar even when the calorie content drops.

"When the foods you eat are lower in energy density, your body's natural appetite signals work in your favor," Dr. Kahleova said. "You eat until you're satisfied, and you simply end up with fewer calories. That's a sustainable way to manage weight," as quoted by Science Daily.

A Different Approach to Weight Management

Weight-loss advice often emphasises calorie restriction and smaller portions. These findings point to another possible strategy: changing the composition of the food on the plate rather than simply reducing the amount of food eaten.

Choosing more water-rich, high-fibre plant foods may help people lower their calorie intake while still eating enough to feel satisfied. That could make weight management easier for some people by reducing the sense of deprivation that can come with traditional calorie-cutting approaches.

"From a clinical standpoint, targeting energy density offers a realistic strategy for weight loss," Dr. Kahleova said. "Instead of telling people to eat less, we can help them eat differently -- and the results follow."

The Bottom Line

The findings suggest that a low-fat vegan diet can substantially reduce dietary energy density, allowing people to consume fewer calories and lose weight without intentionally restricting their calorie intake. (ANI)

https://www.babushahi.com/view-news.php?id=228263 

The Vegan Veto: Why Foodservice Is Still Losing the Customers Plant-Based Brands Fought to Win

From vegconomist.com

Naomi Jardine is the founder of Your Vegan Customer, a UK initiative that helps restaurants, cafés and pubs understand and welcome vegan diners. Vegan for more than ten years, she has eaten out across the UK and beyond, and created the Vegan Customer Standard and the Vegan Champion review programme to give independent hospitality businesses a practical benchmark.

In this guest post, Naomi argues that foodservice is where many plant-based customers are still being let down, and explains the low-cost fixes that venues can make. 

Naomi Jardine - Image supplied

The plant-based sector has spent years and enormous sums persuading people to choose vegan food. Retail shelves show the results. Yet when those same customers walk into a restaurant, café or pub, the experience often falls apart.

I’ve been vegan for over a decade, and I’ve lost count of the times I’ve been offered a side salad as a main course, charged extra for oat milk, or met a blank look when I asked whether the gravy contains butter. These aren’t rare failures at bad venues. They happen at good, busy, well-run places that simply haven’t seen their menu from a vegan’s side of the table.

That matters far more than many operators realise, because of what is often called the vegan veto. When a group of friends, family or colleagues chooses where to eat, the person with the most limited options usually decides. If one venue has nothing for them, the whole table books somewhere else. A weak vegan offer doesn’t just lose one cover; it can lose six.

Image: Odiseo Castrejon on Unsplash

Five things venues get wrong

In my experience, most disappointing meals come down to the same handful of issues. None of them needs a separate kitchen or a fully vegan menu to fix.

1. Treating one dish as choice. A single vegan main, often the same risotto or curry for years, gives regulars no reason to return. Two mains is the minimum that feels like a real menu.
2. Labelling that leaves people guessing. Without a clear VG key on menus, specials boards and allergen charts, vegans either quiz the staff about every dish or give up and go elsewhere.
3. Hidden animal ingredients. Butter in the mash, honey in the dressing, egg wash on the bread, fish sauce in the stir-fry. Kitchens often know; front-of-house often doesn’t.
4. The plant milk surcharge. Charging 40p or 50p extra for oat milk is one of the most common complaints vegan customers raise. It earns very little and signals that vegans are an inconvenience.
5. Staff who aren’t briefed. Confusing vegan with vegetarian, or guessing rather than checking, quickly erodes trust. Equally, an honest “the chips share a fryer with fish” is a perfectly good answer, because it lets the customer decide.

What good looks like

To give independent venues something practical to aim for, I developed the Vegan Customer Standard. It places a venue on one of four levels:

1. Vegan-tolerant: one option, often a salad, that nobody really planned for.
2. Vegan-aware: a few labelled options and staff who can check.
3. Vegan Welcome: real choice, fair pricing and knowledgeable staff.
4. Vegan Champion: vegan dishes so good that non-vegans order them too.

Venues are assessed across seven pillars: choice, clarity, confidence, creativity, fairness, candour and completeness. The last of these is easy to overlook. A good vegan main loses its value if there is no vegan dessert, sauce or drink to go with it, and the table asks for the bill early.

The standard is deliberately written from the customer’s side of the table rather than the kitchen’s. Certification schemes for hotels and large groups do valuable work, but most UK restaurants, cafés and pubs are small independents. They need quick wins they can make this week, not a lengthy audit process.

Those quick wins are cheap: a VG key, dropping the plant milk charge, a one-page staff briefing, a second vegan main and one good dessert. The return can be significant, because vegan customers are unusually loyal to places that get it right and quick to recommend them. Vegan diners share good finds constantly, and we encourage them to give constructive feedback too; our Vegan Eating-Out Toolkit includes a template for doing exactly that.

Image supplied.

Why this matters for the whole sector

For plant-based brands, foodservice is where trial often happens. Someone tries a vegan dish in a pub with friends, enjoys it, and goes on to buy plant-based at home. A bad experience works in reverse: a dry, overpriced afterthought on a menu reinforces every stereotype the sector has worked to overcome.

That makes everyday hospitality one of the most important and least discussed parts of the plant-based story. Brands, suppliers and distributors that sell into foodservice can help by giving venues more than products: clear ingredient information, menu ideas and the confidence to talk about vegan dishes properly.

The good news is that the gap is small. Most venues are a handful of changes away from being somewhere vegans actively choose, and somewhere their friends happily follow. The vegan in the group already has the deciding vote. The question is whether hospitality gives them a reason to use it in its favour.

https://vegconomist.com/guest-posts/the-vegan-veto-why-foodservice-is-still-losing-the-customers-plant-based-brands-fought-to-win/

UK: The Great MOSHIMO Vegan Challenge heats one and two to take place in Brighton

From sussexexpress.co.uk

Twelve of Brighton and Sussex's top chefs – many of whom don't normally cook vegan – will go head-to-head at MOSHIMO this winter in two heats of the Great MOSHIMO Vegan Challenge, the city's original plant-based cook-off. Diners taste every dish and vote for the winner, with the top three from each heat going through to a Grand Final in spring 2027.

Heat 1 takes place on Thursday 19 November and Heat 2 on Thursday 10 December at MOSHIMO, Bartholomew Square, Brighton (7pm, doors open 6.30pm). Tickets are £48, with just 120 seats per heat. Last year's event sold out within 24 hours.

The line-up – drawn from Brighton and Sussex restaurants, street-food kitchens and pop-ups – will be revealed later this month.

"This isn't about vegan chefs cooking vegan food – it's about challenging every chef in Brighton to show what they can do with plants. Some of this year's contestants have never cooked a fully vegan menu before. That's exactly the point," says MOSHIMO co-owner Nicholas Rohl.

Brighton's top chefs converge on MOSHIMO to create plant-based food that is put to customers' vote | MOSHIMO

First held in 2010, the Vegan Challenge was one of the first events to promote plant-based eating as a more sustainable way of eating, and won MOSHIMO PETA's prestigious "Proggy" award.

"When we first set up the Vegan Challenge in 2010, the idea of converting a fish restaurant into a vegan one – albeit for an evening – was pretty radical," says Nicholas. "We certainly didn't believe at the time that the event would presage a movement towards plant-based eating. This was, after all, years before the word 'flexitarian' was coined." 

MOSHIMO (then called Moshi Moshi) came up with the Vegan Challenge as it was launching Fishlove, a series of photographic portraits of A-list celebrities with fish that became an impactful campaign against overfishing and helped change EU fishing laws.

"At the time, scientists were saying that if overfishing continued, wild fish stocks would collapse," says Nicholas. "We looked at our menu and began asking ourselves what we would serve if this were to happen, and turned to Brighton's chefs for advice. That's how the Vegan Challenge was born."

The Great MOSHIMO Vegan Challenge winning dish 2025 | MOSHIMO

MOSHIMO went on to become one of the first restaurants to serve vegan alternative proteins, well before these products became mainstream.

"The Vegan Challenge has played a huge role in informing how we develop our menu, so that we have become one of the best places to eat vegan in Brighton," says Nicholas. "What makes it so special is that it's a truly collaborative event, involving some of the very best chefs in Brighton, who come back year after year, each time creating ever more elaborate and innovative plant-based dishes."

Tickets go on sale on 16th October at https://www.moshimo.co.uk/reservations/vegan-challenge/

#moshimovegan

https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/your-world/the-great-moshimo-vegan-challenge-heats-one-and-two-to-take-place-in-brighton-9291730

Those Vegan Cowboys Leads €1.2M Project on Cow-Free Casein for Sports Nutrition

From mycostories.com

• Dutch precision fermentation start-up Those Vegan Cowboys has been awarded a €1.2M subsidy to lead a consortium developing sports nutrition products from its animal-free casein.

• The project will study the nutritional and functional properties of recombinant caseins, which are made by microbes programmed with specific DNA, and turn the findings into prototypes.

• Running product development alongside regulatory review could shorten the route to market in Europe, where precision-fermented casein needs novel food approval.

Those Vegan Cowboys, a Dutch precision fermentation start-up, will lead a project to develop sports nutrition products using its animal-free casein protein. Partners are Interfood, HAS Green Academy and XXL Nutrition. According to a Green Queen report, the project runs until the end of March 2028 and is funded through the OpZuid programme by the European Regional Development Fund, the Dutch national government and the province of North Brabant.

Credits: Those Vegan Cowboys

Funding and Consortium Structure

The total project budget is €2.58M, of which more than €1.2M is public funding, led by CEO Hille van der Kaa. The partners cover the remainder through their own investment, including R&D capacity, personnel and development work.

Each partner has a defined role. Those Vegan Cowboys develops and produces the caseins. Interfood contributes knowledge of dairy proteins, ingredients and applications. HAS Green Academy provides research and product development expertise, and XXL Nutrition brings sports nutrition expertise, consumer knowledge and a route to products. The project is also meant to strengthen collaboration between companies, researchers and students in North Brabant, with a proving ground at Interfood.

Why Casein, and Why Several Caseins

Precision fermentation involves inserting specific DNA into microbes so that they produce a desired molecule during fermentation, without involving an animal. The technique is already widely used in the dairy industry to make rennet for cheese. Those Vegan Cowboys uses it to make recombinant caseins from cows, sheep, goats, buffaloes, llamas and other mammals, at laboratory scale.

Van der Kaa said casein's complete protein profile, slow digestion and sustained release of amino acids make it of interest for muscle recovery over a longer period than the hours immediately after exercise. She named strength and resistance athletes as the most relevant group. These are the company's working hypotheses, not findings; the project is designed to investigate them.

The start-up also wants to examine individual caseins, combinations and caseins from different species, to see whether any offer additional nutritional or functional benefits for specific athletes or applications. Possible formats include high-protein drinks, shakes, powders and bars. Van der Kaa described exploration as an important part of the work. The project follows Margaret's Finest, a collaborative discovery programme the company set up in July to test its ingredients in applications beyond cheese.

Regulatory Pathway and Market Position

Those Vegan Cowboys has self-affirmed its alpha-S1 casein as Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) in the US and expects a "no questions" letter from the Food and Drug Administration later this year. It works with more than 10 food companies, including dairy firms Westland Kaas and Hochland, on cheese and milk chocolate products. Its earlier funding included a recent €12.25M ($14.2M) raise from equity and crowd investors, according to the report.

In Europe, precision-fermented casein requires novel food approval, which takes longer. Van der Kaa said the project lets the team research the proteins and validate applications while that process continues. She added that the exact regulatory timeline is not entirely in the company's hands.

The company has indicated it intends to file in Singapore and the UK as well as the EU. EU approval could automatically allow sales in the UK under a newly signed Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement. Elsewhere in the sector, Nutropy is also developing animal-free casein.

Credits: Those Vegan Cowboys

Open Questions

The potential benefits of these caseins for muscle recovery rest on the company's reasoning about casein's properties, and whether recombinant or cross-species caseins offer any advantage is what the project aims to find out. Consumer acceptance of protein-boosted sports products will also be assessed rather than assumed. The US and European approval outcomes, and their timing, will shape whether any resulting products reach shelves.

https://www.mycostories.com/post/those-vegan-cowboys-leads-1-2m-project-on-cow-free-casein-for-sports-nutrition