More Bitter than Sweet

In my opinion, there isn't a better treat than ice cream. The creamy texture, the rich flavors, slowly savoring every bite.

Unfortunately, the era of the single ice cream scoop in a cone or cup appears to be long gone.

The country's largest ice cream chains are instead unveiling mammoth-sized sundaes and shakes with mind-blowing amounts of calories, saturated fat, and sugar.

Case in point: Baskin Robbins.

Two of its four new limited edition products -- a chocolate-covered strawberry sundae (pictured at right) and a chocolate chip truffle shake -- are scarily decadent.

The strawberry sundae clocks in at 790 calories, 23 grams (115% of the daily limit) of saturated fat, 410 milligrams of sodium, and 104 grams (26 teaspoons) of sugar.

A medium chocolate chip truffle shake contributes 970 calories, 24 grams (120% of the daily limit) of saturated fat , 1 gram of trans fat (the recommended intake is zero) , 450 milligrams of sodium (20% of the daily limit), and 108 grams (27 teaspoons) of sugar.

These two still don't compare to the atrocity that is a Baskin Robbin's Reese's Peanut Butter shake. The figures below are for a medium!

1,340 calories
92 grams fat (141% of the recommended value)
33 grams of saturated fat (165% of the daily limit)
830 milligrams of sodium (40% of the daily limit)
91 grams of sugar (23 teaspoons)

That's as many calories as SIX scoops of ice cream!

So what's an ice cream fiend to do? At Baskin Robbins, definitely stick to a single scoop.

With each one weighing in at 4 ounces (half a cup), you'll definitely satisfy your craving.

A scoop of standard ice cream contains 260 calories and 40 percent of a day's saturated fat.

Keep the latter figure in mind as you go about the rest of your day and choose vegetable-based meals low in saturated fat (remember, this fat is found in meat and full/reduced-fat dairy).

Since a scoop is also quite high in sugar (6 teaspoons a piece), I'd recommend making this your only sweet treat of the day.

Their non-fat vanilla frozen yogurt is a tasty alternative. It's still quite heavy on the sugar (at 31 grams, it's practically equivalent to a can of Coke), but a scoop contains 150 calories.

Similarly, sherbets are the highest in sugar (34 grams per scoop), but each scoop only adds 2 grams of fat and 160 calories to your day.

Getting your scoop in a cup is a another quick way to reduce potential extra calories (a waffle cone alone contains 90).