Living large: the scoop on ice cream shops

Nutrition Action Healthletter, July-August, 2003 by Jayne Hurley, Bonnie Liebman

In 1904, at the St. Louis World's Fair, an ice cream vendor ran out of dishes. Ernest Hamwi, a Syrian concessionaire next door, rolled one of his wafer-like waffles into a cone shape and offered it to his neighbor.

A century later, you don't have to wait for a World's Fair to buy ice cream cones. Every shopping mall, amusement park, airport terminal, and neighborhood features at least one "scoop shop." And the dazzling larger-than-life-size dishes displayed on menus, countertops, and posters make a single-scoop cone look puny.

What used to be a 150-calorie treat has mutated into a 500-to-1,200-calorie indulgence. Saturated fat? Don't ask.

If your freezer is like those in 90 percent of American households, it's got ice cream or another frozen dessert wedged between the OJ concentrate and the frozen vegetables.

But more than six out of every ten dollars spent on ice cream are spent away from home, much of it at chains like Baskin-Robbins and Haagen-Dazs or at vestiges of 1950s ice cream parlors like Friendly's or Swensen's. And as cones, shakes, and sundaes grow, so do the people who eat them.

In the race to outdo their competitors, ice-cream-sellers can't resist the temptation to build bigger belly traps. It's not just regular ice cream, but super-premium, not just one scoop, but two or three. It's not just a cone, but a chocolate-dipped waffle cone. It's not just hot fudge, nuts, and whipped cream, but every imaginable variety of cookie, candy, and chocolate, from gummy bears to Reese's Pieces to M&M's, Heath Bars, and Oreos.

It's a horserace that will leave many customers limping under the stress of excess flab. The catch: With no in-store nutrition labels, customers have no idea what they're getting. Do they think it's diet food? No. But they sure aren't expecting the equivalent of two or three Quarter Pounders.

"With ice cream portions like these, it's no wonder that two out of three Americans are overweight, diabetes rates are rising, and heart disease is our leading cause of death," says Marion Nestle, chair of the nutrition and food studies department at New York University.

Most of our numbers come from the companies, but we analyzed 13 items that the chains didn't tell us about. We also estimated added sugar--which companies didn't divulge--at about four teaspoons per half cup (4 fl. oz.) of most flavors and about six teaspoons per half cup of sundaes, shakes, etc.

With or without sugar numbers, the results will knock your sprinkles off.

THE COST OF A SPLURGE

                               Saturated Fat
                                  (grams)

                 Haagen-Dazs
            Sorbet (1 scoop)   120 calories

              Baskin-Robbins
           Vanilla Ice Cream
                  (2 scoops)   500 calories

               Ben & Jerry's
             Brownie Special   1,020 calories

         Cold Stone Creamery
      Mud Pie Mojo (regular)   1,180 calories

 Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey
(reg.) in a chocolate-dipped
                 waffle cone   820 calories

          TCBY Toffee Coffee
  Cappuccino Chiller (large)   1,200 calories

              Baskin-Robbins
  Vanilla Milk Shake (large)   1,070 calories

                 Haagen-Dazs
           Mint Chip Dazzler   1,270 calories

Looking for a splurge? Most of these items deliver at least a day's
worth of saturated fat (20 grams) and more than 1,000 calories. Stick
with the sorbet (or a low-fat ice cream, frozen yogurt, or sherbet).

Note: Table made from bar graph.

Baskin 31 Robbins

With 4,600 units across the country, Baskin-Robbins is the second largest ice cream chain (we didn't look at ice cream sold at No. 1 Dairy Queen or other fast-food chains). Stick with a low-fat single scoop in a cup and you can get away with roughly 100 to 200 calories and no more than three grams of saturated fat. (Add 60 calories for a sugar cone.) Low-fat means sorbet, ices, frozen yogurt, sherbet, or low-fat ice cream.

A scoop of Baskin-Robbins' regular ice cream goes from about 250 to 300 calories and eight to 12 grams of sat fat--about half a day's worth. That's bad enough. But double or triple scoops, toppings, and beverages make it much worse.

A large Chocolate Blast, for example, hits 780 calories and 15 grams of sat fat (thanks to its chocolate ice cream, chocolate syrup, and whipped cream). That's as bad as an overstuffed corned beef sandwich. But it's small potatoes compared to the milk shakes, which aren't diluted with coffee and ice. A large Vanilla Shake, for example, packs 1,070 calories and 32 grams of sat fat. It's worse for your heart than drinking three Quarter Pounders.

Best Bites have no more than 250 calories and 3 grams of saturated
fat. Worst Bites have at least 10 grams of sat fat. (The company
didn't provide numbers for toppings.)

Ice Cream, Frozen Yogurt,
Sherbet, & Sorbet                                Total Fat   Sat Fat
(1 scoop--4 oz.--unless noted)        Calories    (grams)    (grams)

[check] Chocolate Soft Serve Frozen
          Yogurt (small, 5 oz.)          110         0          0
[check] Daiquiri Ice                     130         0          0
[check] Sorbet (1)                       140         0          0
[check] Rainbow Sherbet                  160         2          1
[check] Maui Brownie Madness Yogurt
          Gone Crazy                     200         4          2
[check] Lowfat Ice Cream (1)             210         4          2
[check] Lowfat Ice Cream, No Sugar
          Added (1),(2)                  150         3          3
        Vanilla Ice Cream (kid's
          scoop, 2.5 oz.)                150        10          7
        Pralines 'n Cream Ice Cream      270        13          8
        Mint Chocolate Chip or
          Chocolate Chip Ice Cream       260        14          9
        Old Fashioned Butter Pecan
          Ice Cream                      260        18          9
      x Chocolate or Vanilla Ice
          Cream (3)                      280        17         12
      x Vanilla Ice Cream
          (2 scoops, 8 oz.)              500        32         21
      x Vanilla Ice Cream
          (3 scoops, 12 oz.)             740        48         32

Frozen Drinks

        Cappuccino Blast (regular,
          16 fl. oz.)                    310        12          7
      x Chocolate Blast (regular,
          16 fl. oz.)                    520        17         10
      x Cappuccino Blast (large,
          24 fl. oz.)                    470        18         11
      x Chocolate Blast (large,
          24 fl. oz.)                    780        26         15
      x Chocolate Milk Shake
          (regular, 16 fl. oz.)          650        33         21
      x Vanilla Milk Shake
          (regular, 16 fl. oz.)          710        33         21
      x Chocolate Milk Shake
          (large, 24 fl. oz.)            980        50         32
      x Vanilla Milk Shake (large,
          24 fl. oz.)                  1,070        50         32

Cones

        Sugar Cone                        60         0          0
        Waffle Cone                      120         2          0

[check] Best Bite. x Worst Bite.

(1) Average of all flavors.

(2) Contains the artificial sweetener aspartame (NutraSweet).

(3) Average of the flavors listed.

Daily Values (daily limits for a 2,000-calorie diet):
Total Fat: 65 grams. Saturated Fat: 20 grams.