Ice cream is a perfect summertime treat, isn’t it? Sweet, creamy and oh- so-yummy! And it’s fun, because kids can scoop it out of the container themselves.

But we had a problem with ice cream at our house: it was disappearing almost as fast as I bought it. That’s because when it came to ice cream, my teenage boys were “super scoopers.”

Let’s say the ice cream had 170 calories and 10 grams of fat per serving. The heaping mound in one of their bowls was actually about four servings. So … that super-sized bowl of ice cream contained 680 calories and 40 grams of fat. Whoa!

Next time you have ice cream at your house, notice the serving sizes. Is there a “super scooper” in your family, too?

A normal serving size for ice cream is about a half cup or 4 ounces. To help your children visualize the amount, you can fill a ½ cup measure with ice cream and plop it into a dessert bowl. It looks about the size of a tennis ball. To make a bigger treat full of antioxidants, top your ice cream with fresh fruit and garnish with a pretzel or two.

Happy scooping!

Beth Bence Reinke,MS, RD