Ice cream is primarily made from milk and eaten as a cold dessert. The Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan requires ice cream to be made with more than 15 percent milk solids and at list 8 percent milk fat. It is rich in calcium.

Cold deserts with less milk fat than ice cream include lacto-ice and iced milk. However, despite containing less milk fat than ice cream cold deserts such as iced milk are said to be higher in calories than ice cream.

A white paper on ice cream put on in 2007 by the Organization of Ice Cream of Japan stated that calories form ice cream get burned off through cold-induced thermogenesis making the net calories in ice cream lower than you would think.

Making ice cream at home is easy if you have an ice cream make. Most ice cream makers come with manuals including recipes for various flavors of ice cream.