Sweet Freezes
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BRAND-NAME RATING By Jayne Hurley & Bonnie Liebman Big Bad Bars topping at a Ben & Jerry’s, Häagen-Dazs, or Cold Stone Creamery can be an Good Humor Bars and their cousins have been around for years. But not Sevent. But if you just want something sweet, frozen, and portable, you can save long ago, some upper-class relatives time and money if you stop by your freezer instead. moved into the frozen-novelty aisle. There went the neighborhood. Odds are, you’ll also save on saturated fat and calories, but only if you’re care- Some sell elegance (Häagen-Dazs), ful. Some companies squeeze on as much as a stick can hold. Others wave the “fat- others indulgence (DoveBars), some- times with a touch of all-natural, save- free” or “made with real fruit juice” banner to entice you to buy a glorified Popsicle. the-world-with-ice-cream thrown in Here’s the scoop on what to skip and what to grab. (Ben & Jerry’s). And there’s the everything-but-the- kitchen-sink trend. Ice-cream-makers chocolate coating, try a Tropicana Mocha or Java Fudge Frappuccino Bar. now team up with candy companies, Chocolate Dipped Bar. The coating Just remember that each bar has around allowing Nestlé, Milky Way, and covers only about half of each fruit- 30 milligrams of caffeine (about a fifth Snickers to worm their way into the ice and-cream bar, so you get just three of a cup of coffee’s worth). cream business. So now they can snare grams of sat fat. Fudge bars rarely have more than 100 people who have a weakness for either calories and one gram of sat fat. That’s ice cream or candy. Better Bars because they’re largely made of non-fat They’re selling excess—excess ice milk, sugar, and cocoa. Some of the best alternatives to fatty ice cream, candy, chocolate, cookies, nuts, And don’t forget Creamsicles, which cream bars are 50-year-old classics. and (ultimately) excess you. are nearly-fat-free sherbet surrounding a Remember Fudgsicles? You can still find It starts with the high-fat ice cream in small ice cream core. (It’s so small that them, alongside updated fudge and bars like DoveBars, Häagen-Dazs, and even the classic Creamsicle, which has chocolate sorbet bars from Healthy Ben & Jerry’s Peace Pops (Rest-in-Peace regular ice cream at its center, makes a Choice, Silhouette, Slim-Fast, Smart Pops would be more like it). Then the Best Bite.) Like fudge bars, the Ones (made by Weight Watchers), and chocolate coating goes in for the kill. Creamsicle category has gotten more other companies that cater to adult Without a highly saturated fat like sophisticated in recent years. tastes. Our favorites: Healthy Choice coconut oil, the coating wouldn’t stay Häagen-Dazs offers a fabulous, fat-free Low Fat Fudge Bars and Häagen-Dazs solid (nor would the plaque in your Sorbet & Yogurt Bar. Tropicana’s Chocolate Sorbet Bars. arteries). The tab: roughly 300 calories Strawberry’n Cream and Orange Cream You can even get some coffee with and nine to 13 grams of saturated fat per Bars are a close second (if you like the your chocolate if you go for a Starbucks bar. At 10 grams, your bar turns into a tartness of fresh orange juice in your sor- nine-ounce filet mignon. bet). And if you prefer creaminess with And that’s if you shop at the super- little or no sorbet, try Healthy Choice’s market, where most bars come three or Strawberry & Cream Bars, Yoplait’s more to a box. (For the most part, those Strawberry, Cherry, or Peach Double are the ones we’ve listed in our chart.) Fruit Smoothies, or Silhouette’s The Some convenience stores and other loca- Skinny Cow Bars. tions sell single bars, which are about 20 All met our Best Bite criteria: no more percent larger. Now we’re talking 12 to than two grams of saturated fat and 150 15 grams of sat fat. calories. Yet chocolate-lovers have so much to Sandwiches Up, choose from. They can avoid nearly all the saturated fat with fudge bars, choco- Cup Sizes Down Go coatless. Maybe you can handle late sorbet bars, or (lower-fat) ice cream the calories (250 to 300), but who Like many Americans, the ice cream sandwiches. Bottom line: Chocolate needs the sat fat (at least half a day’s sandwich has grown (and we don’t coating is far worse for you than choco- worth) in a chocolate-coated premium mean taller). late chips, chocolate fudge, chocolate ice cream bar? If you love chocolate, Good Humor still sells a normal- syrup, chocolate just about anything. you can get it without the heavily sized Ice Cream Sandwich. It’s got a Photos: FoodPix (top), Nick Waring (bottom). If you absolutely, positively must have saturated coconut oil in the coating. ›››› NUTRITION ACTION HEALTHLETTER ■ SEPTEMBER 2003 13 BRAND-NAME RATING respectable 150 calories and three grams of saturated fat. To The Deep Freeze stay current, the company also offers a Giant Sandwich (250 calories and five grams of sat fat). Then there’s a Klondike Best Bites have no more than two grams of saturated fat Giant Cookie Sandwich (470 calories and nine grams of sat fat)...or the big gun: a Nestlé Toll House Cookie Sandwich and 150 calories. Best Bite fruit bars also must have (540 calories and 11 grams of sat fat). fruit, fruit purée, or fruit juice (other than apple, grape, The good news is that some sandwiches have kept their figures. Klondike Slim-a-Bear and Healthy Choice Ice Cream or pear) as the first or second ingredient (or fruit or fruit Sandwiches are among the best-tasting. purée as both the third and fourth ingredients if the bar Ice cream cups have mostly been targeted to kids. New on has a mixture of flavors, like “mango-guava” or “tropi- the block are Ben & Jerry’s and Häagen-Dazs. They look like cute miniature pints, but each holds a half-cup of ice cream cal”). Worst Bites have at least seven grams of saturated that packs a wallop: about half a day’s sat fat and 200 to 290 fat. Within each section, products are ranked from best calories. to worst. Fruit Bars (grams) Ice Cream, Sorbet, & Yogurt Bars Calories Total Fat Sat Fat(grams) Fruit bars can cool and refresh you for only 30 to 130 calo- ✔ 1 ries and no saturated fat. But there are exceptions: Coconut Creamsicle, No Sugar Added (2 fl. oz.) 30 0 0 or cream can bump the sat fat up to three or four grams (or ✔ Smart Ones Orange Vanilla Treat (2 fl. oz.) 40 1 0 all the way to nine grams in a Frozfruit Coconut or Piña- ✔ Yoplait Double Fruit Smoothies (2 fl. oz.) 50 0 0 Colada Cream Bar). And some companies have started to ✔ Häagen-Dazs Sorbet & Yogurt (2.5 fl. oz.) 90 0 0 dip their fruit bars in—what else?—chocolate coating. ✔ 1 FrozFruit peddles Chocolate Dipped Banana, Coconut, or Chocolate sorbet bars, most brands (2.5 fl. oz.) 90 1 0 Strawberry Fruit Bars with at least 200 calories and 10 to 13 ✔ Tropicana, Orange Cream or Strawberry’n 2 grams of sat fat, for example. Cream (2.5 fl. oz.) 70 1 1 For most fruit bars, though, the question isn’t sat fat, but ✔ TCBY Swirl (3 fl. oz.)1 80 1 1 sugar. Until labels disclose the amount of added sugars (or ✔ Fudgsicles and fudge bars, most brands fruit), your best bet is to look for bars that have fruit, fruit (2.5 fl. oz.) 90 2 1 purée, or fruit juice as the first or second ingredient. (We ✔ Healthy Choice Strawberry & Cream (2.5 fl. oz.) 90 2 1 disqualified apple, grape, and pear juices because they’re the ✔ Silhouette The Skinny Cow (4 fl. oz.) 120 2 1 least nutritious.) We also gave Best Bites to bars that were a ✔ 1 mixture of flavors (like “tropical” or “mango-guava”) if fruit Starbucks Frappuccino (2.5 fl. oz.) 130 2 1 or fruit purée was the third and fourth ingredients (since ✔ Creamsicle (2.5 fl. oz.)1 100 3 2 fruit would probably move to second place if the mango and ✔ Smart Ones Giant Sundae Cone (4 fl. oz.) 130 3 2 guava, for example, were added together). Smart Ones English Toffee Crunch (2 fl. oz.) 110 6 3 Most fruit bars deliver the fruit goods. Exceptions: When 1 it comes to lemon or lime, only a few brands (like Chunks O’ Tropicana Chocolate Dipped (2.5 fl. oz.) 120 6 3 Fruti and Fruitfull) have fruit or juice as the first or second Good Humor Chocolate Éclair (3 fl. oz.) 160 8 3 ingredient. And Dole has only a few flavors (Strawberry and Good Humor Strawberry Shortcake (3 fl. oz.) 170 9 3 Photo: Nick Waring. Mango & Guava) that get a Best Bite. Welch’s has none. Good Humor Toasted Almond (3 fl. oz.) 180 10 3 The information for this article was compiled by Tamar Genger, with help from Yoplait Triple Dipped (2 fl. oz.) 110 6 5 Heather Jones and Sarah Wade. Nestlé Crunch, Reduced Fat (2.5 fl. oz.)3 150 8 6 Snickers (2 fl. oz.) 180 11 6 ✘ Klondike, No Sugar Added Reduced Fat (4 fl. oz.) 180 9 7 Classy Creamsicle. ✘ Nestlé Drumstick, Reduced Fat (4.5 fl. oz.) 280 13 7 This upscale version of ✘ Eskimo Pie, Dark or Milk Chocolate (2.5 fl.