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Frozen desserts served in a cone, cup, sandwich, or “bite” or on a stick like a healthy ice cream bar make it easy to eat small portions of sugary treats. Many of those frozen treats are also lighter than ice cream because they're made with yogurt or fruit. Here’s a snapshot of our latest finds—we call ‘em “Better Bites.” Yum!

What to look for in a healthy ice cream bar or frozen treat

We set our “Better Bite” criteria based on one full-size or mini bar, “bite,” cone, cup, or ice cream sandwich. Some Nutrition Facts labels list a “serving” as 2 or 3 small or mini bars because the FDA’s labeling rules are based on a ²∕³-cup serving of scoopable ice cream. But why not stop at one? Per serving, Better Bites have:

• Added sugar: No more than 13 grams (about 3 teaspoons).
• Saturated fat: No more than 3 grams.
• Low-calorie sweeteners: No aspartame, sucralose, or acesulfame potassium, all of which we rate as “avoid”. And while a 2023 study found a link between the sugar alcohol erythritol and heart attacks and strokes, the evidence is far from solid. Want to avoid erythritol until we know more? To see which items in this article have it, click here.

Healthy fruit & juice bars

“Fruit” bars are mostly juice and/or purée plus sugar water. But calorie-wise, they still beat most other frozen treats. Take your pick:

• Hard-frozen bars. Most icy fruit bars like the wide selection of Better Bites from Outshine, Chloe’s, and GoodPop don’t top 70 calories. Smaller ones drop to 40 calories.
• Sorbet bars.Want fruit with a texture that’s soft and creamy and that melts in your mouth? Think sorbet. Talenti Mini Sorbetto Bars are 50 calories’ worth of the company’s super-flavorful straw­berry, mango, raspberry, and lemon sorbets.
• No-sugar-added bars.Too bad Outshine’s no-sugar-added bars have acesulfame potassium and sucralose. In contrast, GoodPop’s no-sugar-added bars stick to fruit and juice with no sweeteners, so they’re less sweet tasting...and they get Better Bites.

Healthy frozen yogurt bars

No company churns out as many Better Bite Greek yogurt bars as Yasso. All of Yasso’s 13 bars that aren’t dipped in chocolate coating are winners, with a mere 80 to 100 calories and 4 to 5 grams of protein. And most varieties have no  more than 2 teaspoons (9 grams) of added sugar. That’s roughly the same amount of sugar (but only half the protein) of a 5.3 oz. serving of flavored, refrigerated Greek yogurt.

Unfortunately, a box of 4 bars can set you back $6 to $7. To cut a few bucks, stock up during sales or at Walmart, or hit a Costco to save even more. (Some Costcos sell 15 Yasso Cookies ’n Cream bars for around $12.)

More yogurt-bar Better Bites:

• Halo Top Yogurt Pops.These Icelandic-style skyr pops pepper their creamy texture with crunchy granola clusters. Unlike Halo’s ice cream pints, they contain no low-calorie sweeteners, so they clock in with a bit more added sugar (13 grams) than you might expect.
• Enlightened Greek Yogurt Bars.Like Yasso, they hover around 5 or 6 grams of protein and 80 to 90 calories per bar. Enlightened cuts the added sugar to just 3 grams (about ½ teaspoon) with help from allulose, soluble corn fiber, and stevia and monk fruit extracts. That’s likely why some of our taste testers noticed a slight aftertaste or cloying sweetness.

Dipped healthy ice cream bars & bites

Don’t expect any full-size ice cream or yogurt bars that have been dipped in a chocolatey coating to meet our Better Bite criteria. That’s because their crispy shells tack on enough saturated fat from chocolate, palm oil, or coconut oil to blow past our 3-gram limit.

But Yasso dipped bars are far better than most. Take the company’s Vanilla Chocolate Crunch Bar. Yasso wraps the coating around lower-fat frozen yogurt, so the bar’s 140 calories (and 5 grams of saturated fat) handily beat, say, a Dove Vanilla Ice Cream Dark Chocolate Bar’s 250 calories (and 11 grams of sat fat).

Of course, you could also lighten things up with a bar that swaps its ice cream center for frozen bananas, berries, or other fruit. Or you can shave off some unhealthy fat by downsizing. Two options for smaller dipped frozen treats:

• Yasso Greek Yogurt Poppables. They’re like the company’s Crunch Bars, but shaped into balls of frozen yogurt coated in Yasso’s signature crispy quinoa chocolatey coating. The bite-sizing puts Poppables among our Better Bites...as long as you stop after popping just one or two.
• Trader Joe’s Mini Hold the Cone! Only the ice cream topper of each teensy-weensy cone (80 to 90 calories) is dipped in chocolatey coating (2½ to 3 grams of sat fat).

Healthy dipped fruit frozen treats

Diana’s Bananas, Trü Frü, and other chocolate-coated fruits keep gobbling up more space in the freezer case. That’s good news. Some of the pluses of frozen fruit treats:

Less saturated fat. Most coated frozen fruits have far less sat fat than ice cream treats.

• Less added sugar. They’re low-ish in added sugar because companies only need to sweeten the chocolate coating. (Fruit is already sweet!) Most don’t top 4 to 6 grams of added sugar per serving...a mere 1 to 1½ teaspoons.
• Lactose-free friendly. Avoiding ice cream because you’re lactose intolerant? Most frozen fruits that are coated with dark chocolate have no lactose-containing ingredients. (Milk chocolate coatings, on the other hand, have milk or milk powder). To be sure, always check the label.

Most coated frozen fruits are sold as “bites” (chunks or slices). If you want something closer to a pop or bar, go with Diana’s Dark Chocolate or Milk Chocolate Real Banana Halves, which come on a stick. Or make your own!

Healthy ice cream bars

A “paleta” is a premium Mexican popsicle that’s often packed with chunks of fruit. If it’s “con crema”—like Helados Mexico Con Crema paletas—then milk, cream, and a touch of egg yolk lend more creamy richness to the fruit flavors.

The pops in Helados’s variety pack of Con Crema Minis either get Better Bites (Strawberry, Mango) or just miss (Coconut). The taste? Divine!

More of a chocolate lover? If your speed is creamy but not fruity, try these:

• Talenti Mini Gelato Bars. If you’ve ever swooned from a spoonful of Talenti’s dense, velvety gelatos, we have good news. Both of the company’s 80-calorie mini-bar flavors are Better Bites: Dark Chocolate (dark chocolate gelato and chocolate cookie swirl) and Vanilla Caramel (vanilla gelato and dulce de leche swirl).
• Fudge bars. No matter the brand, fudge bars rarely top 100 calories. And most have less saturated fat than ice cream bars. Try Better Bites like Whole Foods 365 Organic Fudge Bars, Alden’s Organic Chocolate Fudge Bars, or Yasso Greek Yogurt Chocolate Fudge Bars.

Healthy dairy-free bars

Fruit juice pops aside, it’s a pity that many dairy-free frozen treats don’t earn Better Bites. That’s because they’re fully dipped or made with ice cream that’s rich in coconut oil. Which dairy-frees do better?

• So Delicious Vanilla Almondmilk Sandwiches. They’re yummy, creamy enough to dupe dairy, and small enough to get a Better Bite. Trader Joe’s Oat Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert Sandwiches come close.
• Jonny Pops Oat Milk Pops. Uncoated bars of oat milk plus unsaturated sunflower (not coconut) oil make every pop a Better Bite.
• Dole Whip. The mini cups of spoonable, airy “Dole whip” are mostly fruit purée, coconut cream, and honey. With 4 to 4½ grams of sat fat apiece, the whips miss our Better Bite cutoff, but they’re low-ish in calories (100 to 110) and, thanks to natural sugar from the fruit, they’re light on added sugar (5 to 9 grams).