2000-year-old ice cream (that still tastes good)

With ice cream being traced back all the way to Emperor Nero's sweet tooth in 37 A.D., this frozen dessert has thousands of years of history.

Now that could be one bad case of freezer burn.

Datamonitor recently declaring that the North American ice cream market has grown about 1.8 percent since 2001, making it clear the dessert is far from going out of style. But what we know of it today looks much different than the original form.

Nero is said to have requested ice brought from the tops of nearby mountains, according to About.com, and combined with fruits. Like an ancient Roman sherbet.

King Tang (618-97 A.D.) of China was said to have started mixing ice with milk, a concoction that probably eventually spread to Europe.

Another version of the story, according to an article form the University of Guelph, credits the cook of King Charles I of England with ice cream's creation, who served it at banquets for the king and his guests.

It brings a whole new meaning to Dairy Queen's "royal treat," huh?

Yet another tale claims Marco Polo brought the creamy concoction to Italy after his travels in the east, which was then taken to France by Catherine d'Medici, according to a book by Caroline Liddlel and Robin Weir.

Apparently it really gets around.

So many want the credit of the scoop that took the nation by storm, and we may never know what truly happened. Likely it was a combination of these versions, and was an idea that evolved over time.

Regardless of its original creator, according to the International Dairy Foods Association, the U.S. created 1.54 billion gallons of it's favorite dessert in 2005, a number that continues to grow.

Next to that statistic, my daily pint doesn't seem so bad, does it?