How to Make Dessert a Nutritious Part of Healthy Living
by Vin Miller
Most people automatically associate a healthy diet with having to forbid themselves from enjoying their favorite desserts. Fortunately, this doesn’t have to be the case.
Popular desserts like ice cream, pie, and cake tend to be what people enjoy most, and although the unhealthy reputation that these foods have earned is well deserved, it’s quite possible to enjoy them in healthy and nutritious forms that still taste great.
A Healthy Perspective on Dessert
Although they can come close, even the healthiest of desserts are still not meant to be more than a pleasing side dish. The foundation of your diet should always be healthy meals that are prepared from natural whole foods and should never be replaced with desserts.
It was easy for our prehistoric ancestors to avoid most of the desserts that we crave today because they simply didn’t exist. However, now that they do exist and we know how good they taste, it can be challenging to avoid them. Even though the sacrifices associated with a truly healthy lifestyle bring tremendous benefits, healthy living doesn’t have to be torturous. As long as you’re following health promoting habits on a regular basis, it’s possible to enjoy unhealthy foods and activities in reasonable moderation without it having much of an impact on your health.
According to the 80/20 guideline of healthy moderation, if you follow very healthy habits for 80% of the time, you should be able to absorb the impact of unhealthy habits for the remaining 20% of the time. I prefer to be much more strict with myself, but that’s based on my personal needs and preferences. What’s great about this guideline is that it provides some leeway for people who are less dedicated, especially when first adjusting to healthier habits. It allows them to find a compromise between all or nothing.
Even though desserts clearly fall into the unhealthy 20% category, there’s still plenty of incentive to make them as healthy as possible. One of the most important reasons is that many people can’t tolerate some of the common ingredients in desserts in any amount without incurring unpleasant symptoms. Furthermore, even when desserts are eaten in moderation, it makes much more sense to choose those which actually provide nutritional value and have less of a negative impact on your health. Within reason, this might even allow you to enjoy dessert more often than you’d normally be able to.
Concerns About Dairy, the Most Common Dessert Ingredient
Basic ice cream such as the Natural Vanilla flavor of Bryer’s All Natural line is actually not that bad, but once you get into more exotic flavors or the low calorie varieties, things change quickly. Even Bryer’s vanilla flavor, which Bryer’s goes out of it’s way to identify as natural in both the name of the product line and the flavor, presents several concerns.
The primary ingredient in ice cream is milk which is a problem for many people because dairy is one of today’s most common food sensitivities and cause of digestive issues. People who are lactose intolerant simply can’t digest dairy and are likely to incur unpleasant symptoms. Those who are sensitive to dairy, particularly the casein protein that it contains, develop an immune response to dairy and are likely to incur more serious symptoms. Unfortunately, this type of sensitivity is more common than most people realize, and some breeds of cattle produce a mutated form of casein called A1 beta casein which is believed to make it more common.
The dairy in any popular brand of ice cream is almost guaranteed to be pasteurized which destroys much of its nutrition and can make it even more difficult to digest. It’s also likely that the milk was produced by cattle that were fed antibiotics on a regular basis and possibly given hormones to increase the duration of their lactation. This can result in the cattle releasing pus into their milk if they’re forced to overproduce and can also result in the milk being contaminated with traces the antibiotics and hormones.
Additional Concerns About Ice Cream
With more elaborate ice cream flavors, such as Baskin Robbins’ Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, the number of ingredients dramatically increase, most of which are unhealthy. The newer ice cream flavors often contain wheat or other forms of refined grains. Similar to dairy, this is a considerable problem for the many people who are sensitive to gluten. Wheat and other types of gluten containing grains are even more common in other types of desserts, particularly pastries.
These newer ice cream flavors also tend to contain potentially dangerous chemical additives such as preservatives and artificial flavors and coloring. It’s common for them to also contain hydrogenated oil, which is trans fat, and soy bean derivatives which are very likely to contain residues of pesticides and can cause hormonal and digestive issues.
The sauces and toppings that many people use on their ice cream and other desserts tend to contain more of the same unhealthy ingredients and make matters worse.
Don’t Bother with Low Calorie Desserts
Many people are tempted by ice cream and other desserts that are advertised as being low in calories, sugar, or fat, but in my opinion, these desserts are even worse than their higher calorie counterparts. This is because they tend to use potentially dangerous artificial sweeteners such as aspartame or Splenda. These sweeteners have caused a variety of frightening problems for many people, many of which are neurological or related to digestion.
Even though there are many reasons to avoid sugar, replacing it with potentially dangerous chemical substitutes is trading one set of problems for another.
The fear that many people have of natural fat is not rational. In fact, saturated fat has numerous health benefits and has been a natural part of our diet for millions of years. Furthermore, a closer look at the existing research reveals that saturated fat and cholesterol don’t cause heart disease. Any natural saturated fat that exists in your desserts not only contributes to their taste, but are also a valuable source of nutrition.
The Best Source of Healthy Desserts
Although you can buy desserts that are much healthier than what’s typically available, they still tend to have an unnaturally large number of ingredients. In fact, I’ve reacted negatively to several such brands of ice cream that were free of dairy, gluten, and soy. As with any food, the best source of healthy desserts is your own kitchen because it gives you complete control of the ingredients. Making your own desserts gives you the opportunity to choose ingredients that are natural and much less processed which will make your desserts more healthy and nutritious without sacrificing their deliciousness.
For example, organic and unrefined coconut milk is an excellent alternative to making ice cream with pasteurized dairy. In addition to being very nutritious and having numerous health benefits, coconut milk is much less likely than dairy to cause digestion or sensitivity issues. Similarly, natural sweeteners like honey are a much better alternative to the highly processed forms of sugar like high fructose corn syrup that are used by many food manufacturers. You can also use sugar free and calorie free natural sweeteners such as stevia to reduce sugar content.
Healthy Dessert Recipes
Although making your own ice cream, sauces, toppings, and other desserts may sound complicated and laborious, it’s really not. In fact, there’s an excellent and very health conscious book about making your own desserts called The Ice Dream Cookbook by Rachel Albert-Matesz that provides plenty of simple recipes for ice creams, sauces, toppings, and more. The book also includes some great nutritional information and an in depth description of the recommended ingredients.
My cooking skills are very basic and I have little interest in preparing elaborate recipes. If I think the recipes in this book are easy to follow, then you should too. Of course, some of them are more involved than others, but the majority of them are quite simple.
One thing you’ll need to make ice cream is an ice cream maker. The Ice Dream Cookbook provides plenty of information on the various types and recommendations on which ones to choose. I have the Cuisinart Pure Indulgence ice cream maker which is relatively inexpensive and has received many great reviews.
If you have any tips or recipes of your own relating to healthy homemade desserts, please share them in the comments section below!
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Excellent article! I remember when I used to live above a corner convenience store, and would often pop down for a Ben & Jerries tub. Man, delicious. But I’d purposefully avoid looking at the ingredients. I’ve never even thought of making my own ice cream, but perhaps that’s the way to go. And using coconut milk sounds like a brilliant alternative… or perhaps soy or almond milk?
Hi Phil, thanks for your comment!
Making your own ice cream is definitely worth a try, especially if it’s one of your regular indulgences. Although you’ll probably find that it tastes a bit different, I still think it’s delicious and I actually enjoy it even more than store bought ice cream knowing that it has quality ingredients and that I made it myself.
Almond milk might work well, but soy milk isn’t a great idea. Many people consider soy to be unhealthy because it can cause issues with digestion, hormone balance, and a number of other important health aspects. Check out The Whole Soy Story by Kaayla Daniel for more information.
If you give ice cream making a try, let us know how it goes!
Try FRUIT. Fruit is one of the healthiest food groups you can get. Experts recommend that we should eat at least five portions of fruit or vegetables every day. You can, for example, make a fruit salad. Choose fruits of different colors so that you get a nice colorful mix, add a bit of pure fruit juice (non-sweetened, 100% fruit juice), maybe a few raisins, arrange it in a pretty dessert plate, sprinkle some chopped nuts or almond flakes over it – and in a short time you have the healthiest dessert possible. If you include apples, bananas and oranges, you have already done something excellent for your attempt to lose weight because all of them are great fat and calorie burners.
I agree, fruit is a very nutritious and tasty treat. I eat sweets rarely enough that fruit has more than enough sweetness for me and could pass for a dessert. The same goes for sweet potatoes which I thoroughly enjoy. However, some people will never get to this point, and it’s still nice to have a true dessert once in a while.
Great post Vin. I love ice cream. I’m eating homemade ice cream with my kids right now. It’s simple to make with the cuisinart ice cream maker. I used raw cream, palm sugar and vanilla. I sauteed some berries in butter and added to the ice cream. Yummy!
Another nourishing dessert I make quite often is fudge with coconut oil, cocoa powder and honey. I got this recipe from Nourishing Gourmet. You put equal parts (.5 cup) into a blender and blend them together then put on parchment paper (or wax paper) and lay flat in freezer for 20 minutes. And there you have it.
Thanks, Tina! I have yet to make a fruit flavored ice cream, but look forward to doing so. Thanks for sharing the fudge recipe, I’ll have to give it a try!
Thanks for the info., that book looks great! I rarely eat ice cream, most of them contain carageenan which causes stomach problems for me and my daughter, or soy which I avoid. It’s great that the book uses coconut , I love it!
Life’s too short not to enjoy the occasional dessert, as long as it’s made from real food. The key words being occasional and dessert- it shouldn’t be every day and it shouldn’t be replacing a meal. I like your 80/20 rule, for me it’s more like 90/10.
Hi meatlessmama, thanks for your comment!
It’s definitely a great book and I highly recommend it if you enjoy the occasional treat!
I’m usually closer to 90/10 too and am sometimes even more strict than that, but it’s a personal preference and we all have to decide for ourselves how dedicated we will be to our health and wellbeing. One of the primary reasons why I like the 80/20 rule so much is because it makes healthy living more manageable for people who are not as dedicated and would otherwise revert to an unhealthy lifestyle.
Hi Vin, Yes! Coconut milk is GREAT! I’ve used it raw to make healthy deserts (using stevia) and even people who are dead set against healthy eating really enjoy it. I haven’t seen either of these books so am glad you suggested them. I appreciate that. We rarely eat deserts and yet once in awhile they are a fun treat. I don’t have a high sugar tolerance at all as I grew up without sugar. My dad was a dentist and kept it away from us as he knew it was bad for the teeth and later he knew it was bad for the whole body. We instead had a lot fruit laying around and that was what we had for snacks when we came home from school.
It’s really good to see you caring here. So important for so many. You also seem to have a realistic and nice balance which encourages people to start living healthier.
I also got your comment back awhile about protein and how some indigenous cultures lived on high protein. I really enjoyed that and have read the same thing. My husband (a college professor) teaches a class titled the anthropology of food and talks about all this, and all the various foods indigenous cultures ate around the world, even insects and scorpions and all kinds of things. Fascinating stuff. He is Mohawk Indian and his people ate a lot of animal protein and he has to have much more than I do. If there is anything to it, he is type O blood and I am type A. If I eat too much protein I get clogged up and also acid burning. It is the only thing that does that to me. Fortunately I have little graving for it. But he handles it very well and feels MUCH better having some meat.
Thank you Vin; you are appreciated!!
Robin
Thanks, Robin!
I appreciate that you can notice my intentions of practicality. After all, good health and healthy living are meant to improve life, not consume it.
As strict as I am about my lifestyle habits, there’s a significant purpose behind all of it. I wouldn’t be making the effort if I didn’t truly believe in the benefits (which I experience and enjoy every day).
I have a pretty low tolerance for sugar too. Like your husband, I need to eat a lot of protein and fat to satisfy my appetite and feel well. My wife is like you and can only eat limited amounts of protein and fat before feeling stuffed and sluggish. Such differences are a great testament to nutritional individuality!
I too think anthropology is a fascinating topic, especially in relation to diet. It sounds like you have a great resource to learn from!
What a nice, balanced viewpoint on treats! My husband and I eat very healthy – fresh organic vegies and fruit and wild game or pasture raised meat and very few grains most of the week then give ourselves one (or two) days to have whatever we want. Most of the time it’s our usual foods plus a dessert. My daughter has an ice cream maker that we share and I love making different flavors of coconut milk based ice creams – my favorite is mocha almond made with organic espresso and sliced almonds. My husband still prefers commercial coffee ice cream but in very small portions. It works for us!
Thanks, Patty! It’s great to hear that your family follows such a clean diet! Mocha almond with espresso sounds like a great flavor! I definitely plan on making some of the nut and coffee variations and this sounds like a great one to start with.
My wife prefers commercial ice cream too, but I’m sticking with the homemade stuff.
I’ll have to try making some different variations to see if I can change her mind.
Mash bananas with cocoa powder… great dessert that has the consistency of pudding and no unnatural sweetening! It take all of 1 minute to prepare and you can vary the flavor by how much cocoa powder you put in.
Hi Jon, thanks for sharing that! I love simplicity and the thought of banana and chocolate makes my mouth water. I’ll definitely have to give this a try.
A slightly more involved variation would be to make your own fudge sauce and use it to dip whole pieces of banana into. Yum!
Hi Vin,
I love sweets and our healthy diets that reflect our lifestyle…Our household eats raw and natural, but we still want a sweet to balance our senses and flavors. We started a small organic sorbet company, and we use Fresh Organic Coconut Water, Organic Fresh Picked Fruit, and for our sweetener we use a Local Unheated Honey. Across the board people react to our dessert with wonder, enthusiasm, and appreciation. It’s not too sweet and yet complex enough to satisfy our palettes and feel like we haven’t lost out. I encourage people to have desserts that make them feel great afterwards! Now, that’s a treat.
Hi Kippy, thanks for your comment! Your sorbet sounds great! Too bad it’s not available on the East Coast.