Healthy Desserts are Possible! Health & Nutrition Tips

Healthy Desserts are Possible! Health & Nutrition Tips
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Healthy Desserts

Desserts can be healthy. But desserts have gotten a bad rap for years, because typically, they consist of all those “sinful” ingredients, such as sugar, sugary frostings and icings, tons of white flour, and oil: lots of calories and plenty of saturated fats if the oil is of the vegetable variety. Sometimes, dessert foods are highly processed, full of food additives and who knows what else.

However, a dessert can actually be healthier for you than the main meal. First of all, desserts can be minimally processed. If you must have cake, brownies, cookies and pies after your main meal, opt for the least processed versions as possible. These are available made fresh daily at whole foods markets, specialty food stores and bakeries. A plate of all-natural organic “Fig Newtons” will definitely pass as a tasty dessert.

Usually, dessert items purchased at these kinds of stores are “baked from scratch” and use ingredients similar to what your great-grandma used. On the other hand, such foods also come pre-packaged in plastic, or in boxes in the frozen section of grocery stores. These also include muffins and donuts. Read the ingredients list: If it’s very long and contains items with chemical sounding names that should raise red flags. Mass-produced desserts often contain preservatives, artificial flavors, artificial colors, and an over-abundance of sugar and salt.

The healthiest desserts, when it comes to the classics - layer cake, pies, pastries, cookies, brownies, cupcakes, ice cream - are those that you prepare at home from scratch. Many recipe books for desserts are available, including for vegan desserts, organic desserts, and desserts make with no oil.

That’s right: No oil. Apple sauce substitutes wonderfully in recipes that call for oil. Use organic applesauce for even more healthfulness in your desserts.

Desserts can also come in the form of fruit plates, all-natural yogurt and fruit smoothies made with organic skim milk. In fact, kids will think they’re getting a winning super dessert if you serve them up a home-made, chocolate-mint smoothie, made with whole, organic ingredients. Dessert can also be in the form of chocolate milk: but free of hormones and antibiotics.

Though there’s really no such thing as a piece of cake or pie that’s “healthy” or “good for you,” in the sense that a green salad is, there are, indeed, versions of these classically sinful foods that rank higher than others in terms of ingredients, so that you won’t have to feel guilty or like you’re putting something bad into your body.

Finally, consider preparing desserts using 100 percent raw vegan ingredients. Raw vegan dessert recipe books are available, and there are raw versions of fudge, brownies, cookies, pies and ice cream. Raw desserts contain health-giving enzymes, whereas, cooking destroys enzymes.

Remember these tips:

Avoid anything artificial like Cool Whip (ever read the ingredients?), popsicles and Jell-O (fake colors and fake flavors) and items with artificial sweeteners. Do you know the dangers of Splenda?