“Eat Less Sugar, You Are Sweet Enough Already.”
The quote is a little romantic, but if we try to read between the lines, we could see the healthy warning that it connotes. The safe level of sugar consumption is only 6 teaspoons for adults and 4 teaspoons for children per day. You might say, “Oh, we don’t put that much sugar in our coffee and milk in a day! We are safe.”
However, this sugar overload is indeed possible because of the hard-to-detect hidden sugar added into the foods that we eat. It is a sad reality that sugar is slowly becoming “lethal” nowadays. Research tells us that an average adult consumes 22 teaspoons of added sugar daily. Compare it with the acceptable healthy value of 6 teaspoons and you will understand why sugar has become deadly.
So, what do we do with our sweet tooth? How do we enjoy the pleasure of desserts without killing ourselves? Do not despair because there are sweet treats that have little or no sugar in them. Let us face it, what is life without the pleasure of desserts right?
Zero Sugar Desserts
We know the need to kick the sugar habit but we are human and we need our sugar treats! Fortunately, there are delicious sugar-free desserts that we can still enjoy without sugar or artificial sweeteners. Here are some of the favourite sugarless desserts that we can indulge in.
1. Frozen Fruit Ice Cream
Ingredients:
1 to 2 pieces ripe bananas
Berries (frozen)
Directions:
- Cut the bananas into chunks and freeze them overnight or at least for 12 hours
- On a food processor, add in the frozen banana chunks and the frozen berries of your choice.
- Adding more berries will make it more like a sorbet while adding more bananas make it more creamy
- Process in the food processor until creamy
- Enjoy it like ice cream!
2. Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
Ingredients:
1 cup milk (raw)
2/3 cup honey (raw)
2 cups cream (raw)
1 tsp pure homemade vanilla extract
1/8 tsp pure almond extract (homemade)
1 pinch of salt
Seeds of 1 vanilla bean pod
Directions:
- Whisk the honey and milk to combine them completely
- Add the almond extract, vanilla extract, salt, and the vanilla seeds.
- Add the cream to the mixture and mix well in a bowl
- Chill the mixture for one hour
- Process the mixture in an ice cream maker
- After 20 minutes, scoop the soft ice cream into glass containers and tap to remove air bubbles
- Enjoy as soft serve or freeze overnight
3. Paleo Salted “Caramel” Dip
Ingredients:
½ cup packed dates (about 12 Deglet dates)
½ cup coconut milk (full fat, BPA free, canned or homemade)
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp coconut oil
1/3 to ½ tsp sea salt
Directions:
- To soften the dates, soak them in coconut milk for about an hour. Skip this step if you have a high power blender
- In a blender, put in the dates, salt, coconut oil, maple syrup and half of the coconut milk and blend on medium speed.
- Pour the coconut milk until you get desired consistency
- Add more coconut milk for a thinner dip
- Dip some apple slices and enjoy!
Variations: You may add some cinnamon or skip the salt and add raw cocoa powder or unsweetened cocoa powder. You may also omit the maple syrup and decrease the amount of salt since dates are already sweet. You can also use raw honey instead of maple syrup.
4. Rich Berry Sherbet
Ingredients:
4 cups assorted berries of your choice
¾ cup honey (adjust as needed)
2 cups half and half
1 ½ tsp lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
Directions:
- Blend all ingredients together. You may strain the seeds if you prefer
- Freeze mixture in your ice cream maker
5. 3,2,1 Custard
Ingredients:
3 eggs
2 ripe bananas
1 can coconut milk
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
- Blend the eggs, bananas, and coconut milk into the blender.
- Put 6 half pint mason jars in a baking dish
- Divide the blended custard mix into the 6 mason jars
- Pour one-inch hot water into the baking dish surrounding the mason jars
- Bake for 45 minutes
- Cool in water bath before refrigerating
6. Peanut Butter Cups
Ingredients:
4 tbsp melted extra virgin coconut oil
½ cup peanut butter (natural)
¼ cup cocoa powder
Stevia extracts to taste
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ scoop protein powder
Directions:
- Mix all the ingredients and pour into silicon liners or 5 to 6 muffin tins (full sized)
- Freeze for about 15 minutes
7. Peach Strawberry Popsicles
Ingredients:
4 peaches (ripe, peeled, pitted and chopped)
1 banana (very ripe)
2 tsp lime juice
3 strawberries (diced)
Directions:
- Boil water in a saucepan and gently put the peaches in the boiling water
- Leave it for 30 seconds or until the skin splits
- Remove the peaches and plunge them into ice water bath
- Peel the peaches when cooled
- Roughly chop the peaches and put into the blender with the lime juice and banana
- Blend until smooth
- Pour half portion into 8 ice moulds, add in the sliced strawberries and top with the remaining peach mixture
- Insert the popsicles sticks then freeze for at least 4 hours
8. Almond Banana Butter Cookies
Ingredients:
½ cup mashed bananas
½ cup almond butter
¼ cup quick oats
1/8 tsp salt
¼ tsp vanilla extract
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit
- Combine all ingredients
- Put some spoonfuls of batter on a baking sheet
- Bake for 7-9 minutes until firm to touch
- Cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack
9. Sugar-Free Chocolate Lava Cake
Ingredients:
200 grams dark chocolate 85% cocoa
120 grams butter or coconut oil
60 ml coconut milk (or milk of your choice)
20 grams stevia powder
30 grams corn flour
30 grams buckwheat flour
4 eggs
1 egg yolk
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius
- Grease the custard cups or ramekin
- Melt the chocolate and butter under medium heat
- Whisk eggs and stevia powder until smooth
- Add flour to the egg mixture and whisk vigorously
- Add the butter and melted chocolate mixture into the egg mixture
- Pour the batter into the ramekin
- Bake for 12-15 minutes or until crust forms on top
- VERY IMPORTANT: DO NOT OVERBAKE to maintain the inner chocolate liquid
10. Sugar-Free Apple Pie
Ingredients:
4 cups sliced apples
½ cup apple juice (concentrate)
1 ½ to 2 tsp tapioca (cornstarch/flour)
1 tsp cinnamon, nutmeg (or apple pie spice)
2 pastry crust
Directions:
- Toss all the ingredients
- Put all the mixed ingredients in a pie shell
- Top with another crust
- Seal the edges
- Cut a few slits on top of the pie
- Bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 to 15 minutes
- Then bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 35-45 minutes
These sugar-free desserts are guaranteed to make you forget that you skimped on sugar. Whether for health reasons or simply cutting back on the amount of sugar intake, these desserts will give you the same sweet pleasure like those sugar-loaded desserts that we are used to eating.
These are the perfect desserts for people with high blood sugar levels. For those who want to control their blood sugars, here is a link for some of the natural herbs that can help.
http://www.irealherbs.com/collections/blood-sugar-health
References:
Prevention. (2013). 11 Weird Things Sugar's Doing To Your Body. [online] Available at: http://www.prevention.com/food/healthy-eating-tips/weird-effects-sugars-having-on-your-body/1-sugar-makes-your-organs-fat [Accessed 2 May 2016].
Babble. (2014). 16 Amazingly Delicious No-Sugar-Added Desserts and Sweet Treats. [online] Available at: http://www.babble.com/kid/16-amazingly-delicious-sugar-free-desserts-and-sweet-treats/ [Accessed 2 May 2016].
Messina, K. (2014). 25 Sugar-Free Desserts That Definitely Don’t Skimp on Flavor. [online] Brit + Co. Available at: http://www.brit.co/sugar-free-dessert-recipes/ [Accessed 2 May 2016].
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Anon, (2016). [online] Available at: 1. http://memeinge.com/blog/almond-butter-banana-cookies/ [Accessed 2 May 2016].
Anon, (2016). [online] Available at: 1. http://angiesrecipes.blogspot.de/2014/06/peach-strawberry-popsicles.html [Accessed 2 May 2016].
Anon, (2016). [online] Available at: 1. http://www.sweetashoney.co/sugar-free-chocolate-lava-cake/ [Accessed 2 May 2016].
Anon, (2016). [online] Available at: 1. http://nicolevbennett.com/sunday-treat-rich-berry-sherbet/ [Accessed 2 May 2016].