"A lot of ice cream is eaten."
Just to clarify what John is saying: whenever you use a non-countable noun, you should use the singular verb ("is"). Non-countable nouns are usually either substances that don't come in individual solid units (water, milk, sand, dust, cement) or categories describing a type of substance/material (plastic, glass, fur, skin).
Some words can be both countable and uncountable. When you talk about coffee as a substance, it's uncountable ("I made a lot of coffee"), but if you're talking about a single unit of coffee, it can be countable ("get me a coffee" = "get me a cup of coffee"). When a noun becomes countable, though, it also has a plural form. You should only use the plural verb with the plural noun.
There IS a lot of ice cream (singular: ice cream is a non-count noun; there is a lot of IT)
There ARE a lot of ice creamS (plural: ice cream is a plural count noun; there are a lot of THEM)