Dessert time is the most painful time of the day for any dieter. While the rest of the family tucks into a tasty pudding, you're left staring at an empty plate - and that's when you're most likely to fall off the wagon. Try these low sugar ideas instead, and enjoy a diet-friendly dessert without a side order of guilt.
Low sugar desserts: dieting doesn't have to mean deprivation
The first thing to consider is what kind of low sugar diet you're following. If you're doing a ketogenic or paleo diet, your dessert options will be extremely limited; however, if you're just generally trying to cut down on sugar, you may find that a few simple substitutions allow you to still enjoy desserts.
Of course, the easiest option for low sugar desserts is fruit. Fresh fruit is better than dried, which has more concentrated sugar. For the lowest sugar fruits, reach for berries or watermelon. You could also go for dark chocolate - the higher concentration, the better. Chocolate with 70% cocoa solids or more has very little sugar, but it can satisfy your cravings. It is something of an acquired taste, though.
Top tip: If you can't have sugar, make sure your food is high quality, so you still enjoy your dessert. Thick, creamy Greek yoghurt is a lot more satisfying than thin regular yoghurt.
No carb, no sugar desserts for keto
On a very limited low carb diet, you don't have many options for desserts. Go for berries, as they're among the lowest carb fruits. Serving mixed berries with unsweetened yoghurt can make a satisfying dessert.
Decadent options for low sugar desserts
One of the best ways to enjoy a low sugar dessert is simple: eat a smaller portion! This means you can still enjoy something decadent and tasty. Single-serving desserts like billionaire's salted caramel white choc pots or white Christmas chocolate cheesecake pots are very rich, so a little goes a long way. In moderation, a small dessert like this can be an acceptable addition to your diet.
Baking low sugar cookies and cakes
If you bake from scratch, you can easily reduce the sugar content of your food. In the average recipe, you can safely reduce the amount of sugar by 25% to 33% without affecting the texture or taste too much. That can make a huge difference to your sugar intake! You could also look for whole wheat recipes, which tend to be more focused on nutrition than most baking recipes.
When baking, use fruit to provide some natural sweetness, and go for spices like cinnamon or ginger to add flavour without sugar. This sweet caramelised cinnamon pear crumble is a good example of a tasty dessert that relies on natural flavours.
Top tips to keep sugar cravings at bay
Following a low sugar diet can be tricky - so do your best to follow these tips. With a bit of practice, they might just become second nature:
- Make small changes to your diet: don't try to overhaul everything at once, or you're likely to fail. Continue to cook and eat classic family favourites, just reduce the sugar content little by little.
- Be careful with convenience ingredients and ready meals. Read the labels to check for hidden sugars.
- Use a food box subscriptionand have ingredients delivered to your door each week. It's easy to feel weak when you're walking around the supermarket. A meal box can really help reduce temptation.
- Don't go for low-fat options if you're reducing sugar. Low-fat products like yoghurt or cheese often have extra sugar added for flavour, so they can actually be counterproductive.
- The most important tip of all: stick with it. If you're new to a low sugar diet, you may feel grumpy, irritable and even physically weak in the first few days. However, over time, your body will adapt. Long-term low sugar dieters lose their cravings for the white stuff and find that they can appreciate the natural sweetness of an apple or an orange so much more!
Low Sugar Desserts FAQs
What is considered low sugar in a dessert?
Officially, a dessert is considered to be low in sugar if it has 5 grams or less of sugar per 100 grams of total weight. A dessert with 22.5g or more of sugar per 100g is considered to be high in sugar, and everything else is just in the middle.
Which sweet has less sugar?
You can buy commercial sweets which are low in sugar or sugar-free, but be careful - they are highly processed, and some are known to have unpleasant digestive consequences. For naturally low-sugar options, reach for a piece of fruit or some very dark chocolate.
Which dessert has the least amount of sugar?
That's hard to say, as it depends on how you make the dessert. As a rule, very dark chocolate is low in sugar, and so is unsweetened yoghurt. Fresh fruit, although it contains some natural sugars, is also considered to be low in sugar.
What are the five signs you're eating too much sugar?
When you eat too much sugar, you're likely to notice that your energy crashes throughout the day and you have frequent headaches; you may gain weight; you could have acne and other skin problems; you may suffer from mood swings and irritability; and you feel cravings for high-sugar food. These are all very good reasons to cut down on the sweet stuff!
What sweets can I eat on a no-sugar diet?
On a very strict diet, you'll be quite limited in the sweets you can eat. Go for the darkest chocolate you can find, and eat just a small amount at a time - a little goes a long way, although it can be an acquired taste. Berries are naturally lower in sugar than other fruits, and go well with unsweetened Greek yoghurt.