Custard

Food · Dairy · Food, Typed Supps

Ninety-eight calories and 115 mg of calcium — the mildest thing on this shelf.

Stage by stage

Texture, not fat (Mouth): The richness is starch and egg thickening; fat is only 3 g per 100 g.
Low energy (Stomach): 98 calories per 100 g, about half of ice cream.
Calcium (Skeleton): 115 mg per 100 g, comparable to milk itself.
Iodine (Thyroid): 23 mcg per 100 g, from the milk base.

Timing

Nothing to time. A serve is 100–150 g, close enough to the panel that the figures are directly useful.

Time to effect

Per 150 g serve: About 147 calories, 173 mg calcium and 35 mcg iodine.
—: Nothing accumulates that needs watching.

Allergens

Contains: Eggs, Milk. Derived from what this food is, not from a product label.

Eating patterns

Fits: Halal, Kosher, Gluten-free. Depends on the product: Vegetarian, Pescatarian.

Satiety

138 on the satiety index, where white bread is 100 — moderate. Modelled from the Holt et al. (1995) measurements.

Environmental footprint

3.2 kg CO2e and 628 litres of freshwater per kg, matched to "Milk" in Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science 360.

Cost band

Mid — roughly £5 per kg, as a band midpoint rather than a price.

Key nutrients

Calcium
Iodine
Protein

Nutrition per 100g

Calories: 98
Protein: 3.2g
Carbohydrate: 14.6g
of which sugars: 12.3g
Fat: 3g
of which saturated: 2g
Fibre: 1.2g
Sodium: 54mg

Food vs. supplement

Oral nutrition supplements for poor appetite are expensive and often poorly accepted. Custard delivers protein, calcium and iodine in a form most people already like, which is half the problem solved.

Kitchen tip

Over tinned fruit in juice, it is a dessert worth actively recommending — around 150 calories with real calcium and iodine.

Common myth

“Custard is rich — it must be full of cream.” In reality: It is thickened with starch and egg, not cream. Fat is 3 g per 100 g with 1.96 g saturated, and the whole thing is 98 calories — about half of ice cream. The richness is texture. Meanwhile it carries 115 mg of calcium and 23 mcg of iodine per 100 g, which is roughly what milk supplies.