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What You Need To Know About Cool Whip

August 17, 2011   32 Comments

Sometimes the food we buy is less about actual food and more about science. This "food" does tend to come in tubs, plastic packages, or bottles.

Cool Whip vs. Truwhip

Cool Whip, made by Kraft, is one of those wonder products that saves time. No whisk or blender needed - just a tub of this stuff and you are in ice cream sundae heaven.

That convenience will cost you. At an average of 41 cents per ounce, you're buying mostly water and air for just over twice what it would cost to whip real cream yourself.

Below is a video summary of the ingredients that are found in Cool Whip (it is pretty funny):

Now, if that grosses you out - you have another option that seems a bit better - truwhip (photo above) is billed as "not your mother's whipped topping" .

They have dropped the high fructose corn syrup and a bunch of the other questionable ingredients.

truwhip ingredients:

Water, organic tapioca syrup, expeller-pressed palm kernel oil, organic cane sugar, organic palm kernel oil, contains less than 2% of each of the following: organic soy protein concentrate, sodium caseinate (milk protein), organic tapioca starch, natural flavors, organic soy lecithin, xanthan gum, guar gum. contains milk and soy.

Here are the nutritional facts: For 2 tablespoons = 30 calories, 2 g fat, 3 g carbohydrates, 0 g protein, 0 g fiber, 0 mg sodium, 1 Points+

Again, it is going to cost you at $3.69 per tub - but it tastes really delicious and is a great way to turn plain fruit into a dessert. I have written about some other options that have come on the market in this post - healthy Cool Whip.

Finally, there is homemade whipped cream - which is my preference when I have the time. The bonus is that you burn calories while making it! Homemade whipped cream has the same amount of calories as the two packaged toppings and it tastes amazing.

Of course, you can't store it for weeks in your fridge :)

Check out this clear and concise post on how to make your own whipped cream on Real Simple.

What do you think of Cool Whip?

Other posts you might like:

Healthy Cool Whip

Healthy Cool Whip

Healthy Cool Whip is an actual product category. You can find alternatives to the famous Cool Whip brand at Whole Foods!....

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32 Comments:

I don't think I can ever buy or eat Cool whip again!

What about people who are lactose intolerant? Most of them don't know about things like coconut whip cream. Most of them don't even know they can eat aged cheese!

Think I will stick to cream and air!

Holy Cow - I had no idea it was that easy to make whip cream yourself! I'm going to buy some cream and make some of my own tonight! (I'm not much of a cook, can you tell?)

I have seen Truwhip at the health food stores, and it's really a shame they sell it there because people automatically assume it's all-natural healthy stuff. There are quite a few questionable ingredients in there - and that brings me to, there shouldn't even be "quite a few" ingredients in there, questionable or otherwise. It literally takes just a few seconds to whip up your own. I don't even consider pre-made a "timesaver."

I definitely had NO idea it was this simple! Thank you so much for sharing!

I stopped buying Cool Whip years ago because I read the ingredients. TruWhip doesn't sound any better.

Nothing tastes better than homemade whipped cream.

I stopped eating cool whip years ago similar to Head Ant...after I read the label. Snack girl what about the whipped cream in a can. Some of it is whipped topping but some is whipped cream. Wouldn't that be a good alternative to the whipping impaired such as myself?

@disco dotty - whipped cream in a can is another good option - has added sugar - but I think it is no big deal.

I've been making homemade whipped cream for many years cuz it's super easy (just buy heavy whipping cream, add a splash of vanilla extract and some powdered sugar, beating until fluffy) and it has no artifical anything! It's a "real" food so that makes me feel okay about divulging on occasion. BTW: It's super delish in coffee in the a.m.! :-)

Isn't palm kernel oil really bad? I thought that was what the movie theatres had to stop putting on the popcorn they sold.

I'd make mine from scratch as well and forgo the questionable ingredients in both.

Been eating truwhip for a month now...LOVE it! :)

That video was horrifying! I don't like cool whip because I think it tastes bad, but now I have many more reasons not to eat it. Unrelated: I <3 Chris Hardwick.

That video won't play because I'm in Canada! Off to you-tube to see if I can find another version... preparing myself to be horrified!

@ Anna, the reason why palm oil/palm kernel oil is so bad it because in order to get it they are cutting down the rainforest at alarming rates and not replanting.

If anyone can't view the video, there is a free podcast of it on iTunes!

I like the taste of real whipping cream or even fat-free whipping cream whipped with air or in a propellant can like Redi-Whip better. i've never felt the need to buy an aluminum jar and tiny CO2 cartridge to do it at home, but I was thinking the other day if I did I could mix matcha powder in the cream and make "green tea flavored whipped cream" to go with a green tea frappuchino and strawberry mochi. Random. I know.

Cannot stand Cool Whip or any of it's brothers, sisters, or cousins. After reading the list of ingredients about twenty years ago, I just started buying whipped cream all the time. My mother at one time started buying Dream Whip in the little packets. What's in that, Snack Girl???

I've never liked Cool Whip anyways~

-Kathy from http://cupcakes-music-fashion.blogspot.com/

the truwhip is still just oil & sugar, mostly JUNK. have whipped cream. the vegan craze seems silly to me. animals exist for consumption (in moderation). veganism seems negative to me. its mostly about what you CAN'T eat as apposed to eating.

@Kay Please don't think of veganism as negative. I just like animals so much I stopped eating them.

Cool Whip and the other artificial whipped "cream" toppings are just plain nasty, and I've never cared for them-they bear no relation to real whipped cream in flavor, texture or mouth feel.(Anyone old enough to remember when the Twinkie's label listed "whipped beef fat" as the primary ingredient in the "creme" filling?) I won't try Truwhip, as it is mostly Palm kernel oil, a fully saturated vegetable fat that is worse for you than animal fat.

@Cindy Beausoleil: I cooked at a vegetarian/vegan restaurant for several years. Veganism is certainly any individual's own choice to make, but as there is no single vegan manifesto describing what can be eaten, I do see it as negative as its adherents define their diets by what CAN'T be consumed. The arguments for veganism I heard from these pale, skinny, anemic individuals were truly mind-boggling: "I don't eat white flour because it's made with bleached monkey bones"; "I don't eat cheese because they kill baby cows to make it" ( almost no large scale Cheese maker in the U.S. uses animal rennet anymore, it's too expensive); "I don't eat eggs because 'they' are cruel to chickens"; "I don't eat honey because it exploits bees", etc., etc. These arguments always seemed more about a political point of view than any health or nutritional concerns.

Really??? Equating having coconut oil to eating sunscreen is just ridiculous! Makes me question anything else he says!

Well some of us are actually allergic to dairy.I would love some whipped topping that doesn't have any dairy in it but is good for me too.Any suggestions? Thanks!

As a healthier FYI, homemade whip cream tastes just as good when made with maple or agave syrup instead of white sugar.

I found truwhip at Wallmart several months ago. They no longer carry it but I tried it and I think it is better than Coolwhip because it doesn't have hydrogonated oil or high fructose corn syrup in it. No it isn't a health food but some recipes can't be made well with home made whip cream which I do make and use. I am thrilled to see a better replacement for coolwhip. I think truwhip is great! I'm so happy health food stores are carrying it. It is an improvement over cool whip. I think it is outrageous that people are still putting high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oil in foods. I won't buy anything with those ingredients. Just sayin! (smile)

My problem is that all whipping cream and heavy cream that I have seen has carrageenan in it and that stuff tears up my stomach. Why? Whyyyyy?

Soy lecithin and soy protein are listed as two ingredients in Truwhip. Soy is poison for men>s health. Is Truwhip for women only?

Just bought truwhip to make a dessert since I can't eat Cool Whip or Redi Whip....carrageenan is my "bad" ingredient in anything. I realize that sometimes it's a "hidden" (buttermilk for instance) ingredient but I'm really hoping it's not in truwhip...it's really good!

Animals exist for consumption? Is that some sort of biblical interpretation? I don’t think it came from an animal’s point of view. Here’s a radical idea. Skip the whipped cream altogether! (Even though it does exist for consumption!} None of it is actually good for you.

Whipping cream IS easy, but that's not why I occasionally choose fake whipped "cream" in a tub. It's because real whipped cream doesn't hold up well in layered desserts you make ahead like banana pudding or a trifle. Real whipped cream will quickly "deflate" in these kinds of desserts but the tub variety holds up well.

What a disappointing article. The title mistakenly led me to believe this would be comparing flavor, taste and consistency of truwhip and cool whip. I don't understand why you even mentioned real whipped cream. Comparing cool whip to real whipped cream is comparing apples to oranges. Cool whip is a STABILIZED whipped topping. The only comparable substitute would be stabilized whipped cream which is still relatively easy to make from scratch,just stir in gelatin powder to cream and allow to set a little before whipping in sweetener & vanilla.You never really went into detail about the eating experience of either so I still don't know which to buy nor do I understand why the oils in cool whip are "bad" but the oils in truwhip are ok? *SMH

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