Take Your Licks
Women's Health reveals icy treats for 160 calories or less -- how cool is that?
July 16, 2008— -- When you're squeezing into last year's tankini, the dessert end of the freezer aisle seems taboo. But what would summer be without Popsicles and fro-yo? Sucky, that's what.
To find frosty goodies that won't test the limits of Lycra, we sampled 27 kinds. The result: these eight amazing, guilt-free indulgences--and one mother of an ice-cream headache.
Best For 100 Cals
Klondike Slim-a-Bear sandwiches
100 calories each, $4.30/box of 6
These creamy-on-the-inside sandwiches are the poster child for portion control: we could devour one without guilty urges to rip into a second or third.
Best Real Scoop
Breyers All Natural Strawberry ice cream
120 calories per half-cup, $5.60/1.5 quarts
"Research suggests that if you're eating a single flavor, you'll eat less," says Dawn Jackson Blatner, R.D., a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. Strawberry doesn't beg for toppings the way vanilla does, and the real fruit in it contains fiber, so that full feeling won't melt away with your last lick.
Best Fruit Bar
Trader Joe's Caribbean Fruit Floes
80 calories each, $2/box of 4
Thanks to chunks of real fruit, these tropical pops scale back on fat, not on size or taste. "The natural sugar will satisfy your sweet tooth, and you get 20 percent of your RDA of vitamin C," Blatner says.
Best Mini
Dove Miniatures in cherry, chocolate, or vanilla
60 calories each, $4/box of 16
What these itty-bitty bars lack in size, they make up for in flavor. With a rich milk-chocolate shell and decadent center (cherry's our fave), one or two is plenty.
Best sandwiches
The Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches in vanilla and chocolate
140 calories each, $5/package of 6
Deliciously soft (but not soggy) chocolate wafers complement a just-sweet-enough center to make this sandwich as substantial a snack as a PB&J but with about half the calories--and way more chocolaty indulgence.
Best Sorbet
Haagen-Dazs Zesty Lemon sorbet
110 calories per half-cup, $4.30/pint
On days so hot even ice cream isn't enough to cool you down, there's sorbet. Testers raved over this one, which is made with real lemon juice. Comments ranged from "luscious" to "like a cold shower for my tongue." And how's this for a bonus: The refreshingly tart flavor kept us craving-free for hours.
Best Ice Cream Bar
Edy's Slow-Churned Cookies 'N Cream light ice cream bars
150 calories each, $4/box of 6
The slow-churned filling has the texture of regular ice cream with half the fat and one-third the calories, which left us free to savor the candy-bar-like crispy rice and chocolate coating. Yum.
Best Fro-Yo
Ben & Jerry's cherry garcia low-fat frozen yogurt
160 calories per half-cup, $4/pint
Scooper beware: This cherry bomb packs the most calories per serving of any on our list, a reminder that portion control still counts, even with foods that are billed as less fattening. But we can overlook that while we have fudge flakes melting on our tongues.
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