Articles from Diabetes Forecast® magazine:
Fitting in Sweets
Holidays and other special occasions can be tough when it comes to desserts. Whether it is cake for a birthday, pie for Thanksgiving, or ice cream on the 4th of July, sweets are everywhere.
Holidays are special times, and most people can enjoy a small serving of their favorite dessert now and then.
It is important to remember that most sweets have a lot of calories and carbohydrate in a small portion so pay attention to your serving size. You can work a sweet treat into your meal plan by replacing a small portion of dessert for other carbohydrate already in your meal plan.
For example, if you want a small serving of pumpkin pie, you may choose to pass on eating a dinner roll or sweet potatoes during the main course.
Tips for Desserts During the Holidays
Try these tips this holiday season:
- Decide ahead of time what and how much you will eat and how you will handle social pressure ("No thank you, I'm too full.").
- Share one portion of dessert with someone else, and scrape off any high-calorie whipped-cream topping or extra frosting.
- Is there someone else at the party who is trying to watch what they eat? May be they will want to join you for a walk while dessert is out on the table.
Revising Recipes
There are ways to revise many dessert recipes so they are healthier and still great-tasting. Many times, you can use less sugar or replace up to half of the sugar in a recipe with a sugar substitute.
Search for healthier versions of recipes using our Recipes for Healthy Living resource. When searching other places for recipes, pick recipes that give you the serving size and the amount of carbohydrate.
