You’re screaming for ice cream, but should you eat sorbet instead? The list of high-carb/high-fat foods to avoid is so long that it probably rivals a Space Shuttle’s preflight checklist.

No surprise, then, that ice cream usually appears among the list of food no-nos, as it contains hefty amounts of both muscle-obscuring fat and fat-friendly sugar.

But is the ice cream man all bad? Should we join our European brethren and slurp sorbet instead?

The winner is: Draw Reason: We said sorbet, not sherbet. Sherbet contains milk, eggs or some other source of fat, whereas sorbet is most often made simply from fruit puree, sugar and ice, and it is fat-free.

With no fat to slow it down, fruit sorbet’s sugar can surge straight into your bloodstream to boost insulin levels and drive muscle growth instantaneously. This is perfect after workouts, meaning sorbet is a great treat at this time (along with a whey protein shake, of course).

Naturally, fat isn’t always bad, either. Because it takes longer to go through the digestive tract, it slows down the digestion and absorption of sugar and other nutrients with it.

This keeps insulin levels lower and, therefore, fat storage down. That’s a bad thing immediately after workouts, but it can be a good thing at other times of the day when you’re sitting around on your glutes.

Protein also takes its time being digested and slows down carb digestion. Ice cream contains both protein and fat in significantly larger amounts than sorbet.

It also contains choline, a type of fat that’s a component of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter responsible for sending nerve impulses, including those that tell your biceps to raise that dumbbell you’re holding. [via]