Tasty desserts don’t have to be jam-packed with sugar

Banana nut sorbet, mango cucumber gelato or a warm miniature chocolate cake drizzled in raspberry sauce are all mouthwatering desserts.

Would you believe that all of these luscious treats have fewer than 200 calories?

Low-calorie desserts can be just as satisfying as their high-calorie cousins. They just don’t have the indulgence guilt associated with high-calorie foods. Lowering the calorie and sugar contents of food does alter its taste though, and it takes a little getting used to.

“You have to adjust your taste buds,” said Jackie Mills, a registered dietician and author of The Big Book of Diabetic Desserts. “A low sugar dessert is not going to taste the same as a Cheesecake Factory cheesecake.”

Eventually taste buds adjust to eating less sugar.

One way to reduce the calorie and sugar content of desserts is to decrease the amount of sugar used in recipes.

“You can reduce the sugar in a recipe by about a third without ruining the texture or the browning, especially with a lot of older recipes,” Mills said. “By using a third less sugar you’re still going to get something really great.”

Reducing the sugar doesn’t affect the taste that much, but it doesn’t alter the cooking process.

Recipes made with less sugar:

- bake faster: watch the oven timer

- don’t brown as much: be careful not to over bake

- don’t rise as much: sugar provides volume in baking

- spoil faster: sugar acts a preservative

Another way to reduce the calorie-intake from desserts is to, well, eat less.

High fiber foods often help people fill up quicker with fewer calories, said Patricia Lopez, a registered dietician with Zepol Dietary Consults in Edinburg. She recommends mixing fresh or died fruit in yogurt, or freezing bananas or grapes for a satisfying treat. If a person really wants a dessert, Lopez encourages people to choose oatmeal cookies.

“It has the fat but at least a little bit of fiber,” she said.

If they want something cold - banana splits aren’t a bad choice.

“Just don’t add too much ice cream,” she said.

For a lower-calorie option people can enjoy sugar-free Jell-O with a dab of Cool Whip, she said.

Avoiding crusts can also cut out a lot of fat and calories, said Susan Ayersman, a certified nutrition specialist with Kronos Optimal Health Company, a whole health company in Scottsdale, Ariz. A person could eat an apple pie without the crust.

But better than eating pie filling, Ayersman recommends people simply have a fruit dessert.

“It’s really tasty and satisfying without additional fat and sugar,” she said. Put a little cinnamon on frozen cubed mangos and you have a healthy dessert with a similar taste to peach pie with half the calories, Ayersman said.

Also changing the ingredients of a typically fattening dessert can make it healthy. Ayersman recommends a chocolate mousse made from tofu.

“It’s a great little alternative,” she said. If you dollop it over raspberries it’s really tasty.

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Paige Lauren Deiner covers features and entertainment for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4425. For this and other local stories, visit www.themonitor.com.