Simple and Healthy Sweet Treat Ideas

Now that Valentine’s Day is behind us, we can take a serious look at the foods we eat when snacking and having desserts. There are many choices available and it isn’t that difficult to make smarter decisions that will have an overall positive impact on your nutritional health.

Simple guidelines to help you with this process:

Serve small portions. You do not need to eliminate all sweets and desserts. Try using smaller bowls and plates and portion sizes. Consider sharing a portion of birthday cake or candy bar.

Sip Smarter! Soda and sweet drinks contain sugar without providing any nutritional value. Offer water or consider alternatives to sugar drinks. Try diluting them in half with water as a better option.

Choose not to offer sweets as a reward. Be kind and give yourself other rewards instead of food-especially sugar containing foods.

Make fruit the dessert of choice. Serve baked apples, pears or a fruit salad instead of high calorie desserts.

Make new snacks from dry whole grain cereal and unsalted nuts or seeds. Provide ingredients that allow for healthier options that are low in sugar and processed foods.

Read labels and choose foods that have the lowest amount of sugar. Use under 10 grams of sugar per serving as a guideline.

Treats are great once in a while, but not an everyday thing. Limit sweet treats to special occasions and make sure these special occasions don’t happen daily.

Try not to replace meals with candy or cookies. If you don’t eat a healthy meal, having high sugar foods is not a good substitute.

 

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