Creating a low calorie dessert guide that you can live with

Low calorie desert guides don't do much good unless you are able to integrate healthy practices into your lifestyle. Dessert is particularly challenging for many people because it is often the most sugar laden, high in fat and carbohydrate loaded part of the meal. It is not a stretch to say that some deserts can contain more calories than the actual main course that you have eaten. Cutting dessert out of the picture entirely may be one easy solution for cutting calories, but what is the fun in that? The truth is that when you have the right knowledge of what you can do to reduce the calories, you can have your dessert and enjoy it without worrying too much about the calories that you are consuming.

• Count the calories of the day to determine if you will have enough left in your allotted daily caloric intake to indulge. If you do not, than you may have to pass on dessert or simply choose something less decadent.
• Don't eat too much dessert. Getting a great dessert and sharing it with someone else is a great way to cut the caloric intake of that meal by half! Plus it will save you a buck or two.
• Use self control. Sometimes a bite or two of a really rich dessert will be all that you need to feel satisfied by a good dessert. Once you have gotten your fix, put the fork or spoon down and walk away from the dessert.
• Try new foods. Sometimes when you are counting calories and trying to stick to a diet, desserts that you are familiar with become easy to have all the time, this makes your craving for something different even stronger and your will may not be strong enough to cope with the starvation of new tastes. Variety can spice up any diet.
• When you're baking a usually high-fat dessert, consider substituting butter or oil for fruit, fruit puree, and other natural ingredients that will help your dessert bind better. Many times these substitutions do not alter the flavor of the dish at all.
• Try artificial sweeteners. Artificial sweeteners provide a great opportunity for you to add sweetness to a dessert without adding all of the calories. There are some questions regarding the safety and usage of artificial sweeteners so make sure that you have the information that you need to make a wise decision. (The topic of artificial sweeteners will be discussed in greater depth later in this article).
• Fruit can be a great substitute for dessert if you are trying to cut back. Canned fruit that is stored in water or its own juices (not high fructose corn syrup) can be satisfying and rewarding as a sweet treat. Also try using unsweetened dried fruit instead of sugar. This will not only give you your sugar fix, but it will help to increase your fiber intake as well.
• Beware of dairy. Many desserts that have dairy ingredients will often be made of cream or other high-fat milk products. Try to avoid these high calorie desserts all together or ask if the dessert can be made with skim milk or as a dairy-free dessert.
• Read the labels. Although this sounds very elementary and certainly not like it may be any fun, reading the nutrition labels on the foods that you buy will give you a more accurate description of what you will actually be eating than the slogans on the box may suggest. Marketers know that they will capture your attention if they can claim that their product is "fat free" but keep in mind that many of these desserts will contain extra amounts of sugar to make up for the fat. Make sure that you are looking at the labels to find the actual sources of calories in the desserts that you buy.
• Use only pure chocolate in your chocolate recipes. Gourmet chocolate is often much healthier since it contains only cocoa butter and sugar and remember that you can make a little bit of chocolate go a long way.
• Add gelatin to the recipe. Gelatin can add texture to many desserts and is commonly used to make fruit and juice-based desserts. Also consider using sugar-free pudding. Chocolate and vanilla puddings are great substitutes for ice cream.
• Grocery stores are listening to their consumers when it comes to stocking the low-calorie desserts that they crave. Many stores will have diabetic-friendly sections that contain a whole range of sugar-free dessert mixes.

What you need to know about low calorie sweeteners

There has been a great deal of confusion regarding sweeteners and whether or not they are an acceptable substitute for sugar. The truth about most low calorie sweeteners is that they are able to give your food a sweeter taste without giving you the calories or raising blood glucose levels. But also keep in mind that real sugar is also not as dangerous as you may have been told and that sweeteners are designed to be added to your meal plan rather than used as a substitute for all sugar intake.

Not all low calorie sweeteners are created equal; some are certainly better than others and there are some sweeteners not approved by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) that you want to be sure that you avoid all together. Below you will find an FDA approved use list of low calorie sweeteners. The American Diabetes Association also accepts the FDA's conclusion that these sweeteners are safe and can be integrated into a healthy diet:

• Saccharin (Sweet N Low, Sugar Twin) - Some studies where very large quantities of saccharine was given to rats, raised concerns that saccharin could cause cancer. A series of many follow-up studies and years of research have found that Saccharin is considered safe to use in the normal quantities that consumers would use. Saccharin can be used to sweeten both hot and cold drinks and food items.
• Aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal) - Aspartame is not recommended for use in backing because high temperatures can decrease its sweetness. You can find guidelines for the use of Aspartame by visiting the manufacturer's website.
• Acesulfame potassium (Sweet One, Swiss Sweet, Sunett) - This sweetener can be used in both baking and cooking.
• Sucralose (SPLENDA) - Sucralose is a relatively new product on the market. This sweetener can also be used in both baking and cooking.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of reduced-calorie or low-calorie sweeteners?

As with just about any product that you will encounter there will be advantages and disadvantages to the use of any of the above mentioned sweeteners. Below are some of the more common advantages and disadvantages that you may want to keep in mind:

Advantages of sweeteners

• Low calorie sweeteners may help people who are overweight or have diabetes to reduce calories and stick to a healthy meal plan.
• Sweeteners are useful for reducing calories and carbohydrates when used instead of sugar in coffee, tea, cereal, and on fruit.
• Low calorie sweeteners are useful for adding extra flavor or sweetness to your food.
• Disadvantages of sweeteners
• Some sugar free foods or products that use low-calorie sweeteners actually have more calories and more fat than the sugar sweetened versions. Sugar free versions of foods also typically cost more. Try buying the regular versions of the desserts that you like and just cutting back on how much you eat.
• Some sweeteners affect the way the foods cook and the final texture. If you are having these problems with your low calorie recipes try a combination of sugar and a low calorie sweetener.
• Sweeteners have developed a bad reputation for doing more harm than good, in some cases certain sweeteners were shown to cause symptoms of cancer in lab rats. However, results done by a number of laboratories of the course of several years showed that low-calorie sweeteners are safe for almost everyone, including children and pregnant women. However, people with a rare condition called phenylketonuria (PKU) should limit their intake of a particular type of low calorie sweetener called aspartame.