When you eat too much sugar from ice cream and your liver doesn’t need any more glycogen, your body stores it as fat, per Women’s Health Network. Fat cells produce more estrogen. Not only that but when your blood sugar spikes, your pancreas produces more insulin as a response. The increased insulin means a decrease in the protein that balances your hormone levels, which leads to irritability and anxiety. As women enter perimenopause, they could experience more night sweats and hot flashes.
As MedlinePlus noted, replacing a meal with ice cream not only could cause you to gain weight but also could raise your LDL cholesterol. Too much LDL cholesterol in your system could clog your arteries and put you at risk for heart disease.
Many brands of ice cream also have emulsifiers and processed ingredients that aren’t great for the bacteria in your gut. According to a 2022 article in Foods, food emulsifiers found in ice cream such as polysorbate 80, propylene glycol alginate, and carrageenans could contribute to metabolic syndrome and other chronic inflammatory diseases because they promote the pathogenic bacteria in your gut while decreasing the beneficial bacteria.