Sweet, sweet candy

September 5, 2008 4:49 PM

What are some (at least slightly) healthy alternatives to muffins, pudding, cupcakes and chocolate? Everybody I know favours savoury -- but I favour the sweet stuff! My attempts to eat well eventually derail because while I have lots of healthy savoury options, I've got no healthy sweet options.

NB: Fruit doesn't count, I already eat it and it doesn't seem to satisfy my cravings.

My diet consists of salads, sushi, nuts, rice, white meats (and sometimes bacon and sausages), soups, fruit, pulses, wholegrains, cereals, yogurt, etc.

I can go fine for a while but, especially when I have PMS, I need sweet stuff. And I am now on birth control that makes me hungry all the time.

So what do you think? Are there substitutes that are healthier than what I crave? You can be as wacky or creative as possible! I'll try anything.

Or should I just accept that I have a sweet tooth and not try to fight it? After all, the rest of my diet is okay. I don't really need to lose weight or anything (although I'd like to, I'm at the low end of healthy in terms of BMI so that's not really necessary, just superficial!)

posted by mjao to health & fitness (38 comments total)

Baklava!
posted by Class Goat at 4:53 PM on September 5, 2008

Are there substitutes that are healthier than what I crave?

In the long run, not really. You could try apples or raisins, but since you say fruit doesn't count that may be no use. Give in to the cravings or sort the cravings out. I used to crave a lot of rubbish food but I quickly turned things around by gorging all day long on a variety of very healthy food and experimenting - keeping yourself well fed, never becoming hungry, and enjoying a wide variety of fruit and vegetables is the key. When you have built up a fantastic repertoire of healthy foods you love the cravings for rubbish should cease to exist. Good luck!
posted by fire&wings at 4:56 PM on September 5, 2008

You could make frozen fruity yoghurt or sorbet? Then at least even if it's got sugar, it's not got fat as well. Halve bananas and freeze them on a popsicle stick - they taste really creamy. Or make instant "icecream" with frozen banana and berries in your food processor (here's two takes on it, with yoghurt and without)
posted by slightlybewildered at 5:00 PM on September 5, 2008

I am so with you. What helps me these days is the fact that Ginger Gold apples are back in season. I know, I know, but they're really sweet. In general, a knowledge of fresh local fruits in every season can lead to discoveries that amaze us. Frozen fruit (which is more concentrated in sweetness, sometimes even sugared) with good-quality yogurt is a delight.

Jello 100-calorie puddings are acceptably chocolaty but always sort of make me feel like Cathy, and consequently hate everything and everyone, which is a bad way to end your lunch break.

I found little fruit mochi cakes from Japan that are only 71 calories, and plenty sweet. Mochi may not be to your taste, but give it a try.
posted by Countess Elena at 5:06 PM on September 5, 2008

You already mention yogurt, but I am a biiig fan of plain yogurt with blueberries, strawberries, bananas, granola and lots and lots and lots of honey. Sometimes I also mix in some flax seeds. It's tasty, sweet, and extremely high in fiber.
posted by pazazygeek at 5:06 PM on September 5, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I rein in my sweet tooth rather than try to conquer it completely. A few things help me:
- A set amount of dark chocolate chips per day. Using a measured cup makes it easier for me to both limit my intake and visually pace myself. When I started, I ratcheted my intake down weekly so that I'm now at 1/4 cup a day, versus eating blind all day.
- Eliminating needless sugar (high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup) anywhere else I can in my diet so that the sugar I do have is meaningful (check your breads, salad dressings, tomato products, etc. and look for a HFCS-free brand)
- Fruit popsicles instead of ice cream. They're sweeter than fruit and have all the connotations of ice cream. I like Whole Foods' 365 brand--the citrusy ones seem to reset my palate.
- Making my own banana bread with all or half of the oil substituted by applesauce
- And, if I'm really struggling, making myself drink a tall glass of water or have a piece of fruit before I eat whatever I'm craving. I usually eat much less of it then.

Also, every once in a while I do a sugar fast for a week. It really helps my body readjust and tone down the habit and cravings.
posted by cocoagirl at 5:11 PM on September 5, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

As long as you keep the sweet-stuff indulgences occasional and moderate, like maybe ice cream once a week, go for it. Just make sure that the rest of the time you're eating healthily. If I eat something junky once every now and then, it's no big deal, but if I eat something junky two or more days in a row, it can turn into an addiction pretty quickly.

For healthy sweet options, you could try cooking your fruit. Fruit usually doesn't satisfy the baked-goods craving for me either, but a plain baked or grilled banana is heaven.
posted by Metroid Baby at 5:11 PM on September 5, 2008

Why not give "Miracle Fruit" a try? Not for it's own sake, but for the effect it has on the taste buds. For some time after eating one, things that are normally sour taste sweet, so, for example, you can enjoy a lemon straight and it will taste sweet like an orange. I must admit I've never tried it myself, but it sounds intriguing.
posted by richg at 5:13 PM on September 5, 2008

have you tried making your own muffins? they turn out a lot smaller and healthier than the store bought kind, you can even use part wheat flour. This one is close to a recipe I've used.

mainly I just try to eat some really nutrient dense foods (kale!) to try to even out the sweet food. and try to cook rather than buy the sweet stuff.

the combo of applesauce + yogurt + cinnamon/pumpkin pie spice is one that (sometimes) works for me in place of ice cream. trail mix with a few chocolate chips works too.
posted by ejaned8 at 5:13 PM on September 5, 2008

Oh my God, richg, I tried those fruits on a trip to a Honduras farm a few months back, and had no idea what they were.... wild!!! The claims are completely true. Makes a lemon taste like honey!
posted by changeling at 5:17 PM on September 5, 2008

Dark chocolate can reset a sweet tooth and make you feel satisfied without packing a lot of calories or bad fats and has some promise of having health-boosting effects. A small square goes far, so buying one really good bar and parceling it out when you feel the need can help a lot.
posted by batmonkey at 5:19 PM on September 5, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

These answers are fantastic. Please, keep them coming!

I'll try them all but some of them are bound not to "work" for me (i.e., I'll still be craving something afterwards). So the more ideas the better.

Cocoagirl, a sugar fast seems like quite a smart thing for me to do occasionally. It does feel like the more sugar I eat, the more I crave, and sometimes I feel really strange because of it!

Richg, I wonder if I can procure some Miracle Fruit in Australia? That sounds interesting.

ejaned8 & cocoagirl I never really thought about making my own muffins / banana bread, I guess because if I made a full batch, I'd feel bad throwing a bunch of them away (or I'd feel inclined to eat them all.) Perhaps I could make tiny batches! It would save me money too (presumably).

If anyone has some great recipes for healthier variations of this kinda stuff, let me know! Is there anything I can substitute for white flour? Is there wholegrain flour?
posted by mjao at 5:22 PM on September 5, 2008

One more vote for quality dark chocolate.
posted by philip-random at 5:23 PM on September 5, 2008

^ Oh ejaned8 I just read the part about wheat flour :)
posted by mjao at 5:24 PM on September 5, 2008

Dried mango strips (T Jo's has some). Packages come with dark and light strips, and the dark strips are sweet-tooth satisfying. (Again, I heard what you said about fruit, but these have such a powerful flavor and no water that it may be less of a wash-out than fruit is.) Just, um, limit your intake to 2-4 a day.
posted by dreamphone at 5:39 PM on September 5, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Also, to your comment about making a batch pf banana bread/muffins, those things usually freeze very well and thaw quickly, so you'll have a bunch of single-servings ready on back-up when the mood strikes.
posted by dreamphone at 5:41 PM on September 5, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Apparently these miracle fruit tablets are supposed to work just like the real thing.
posted by changeling at 5:46 PM on September 5, 2008

This may be just me, but for some reason, baby carrots temper my rabid sweet tooth. They're just sweet enough, slightly juicy, and pleasantly filling. (I eat the organic ones, 'cause they seem to be sweeter/juicier than the non-organic variety.) When I'm having especially bad sweet cravings (such as during PMS), I'll dip the carrots in a small bit of natural unsweetened peanut butter, and, voila! craving completely disappears.
posted by lovermont at 5:52 PM on September 5, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

You can also add soy flour in small amount to muffins, etc which increases the calories but should also make you feel more full and may help satisfy you more. The hope is that a few more protein calories now will result in fewer carb calories later on 'cause you're less hungry.
posted by GuyZero at 6:06 PM on September 5, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I know you said fruit doesn't count, but one of my all-time favorite treats is some sweet dark cherries (the frozen kind, slightly defrosted) covered with a chocolatey sauce. I take about 1 tbsp cocoa powder and mix into 2 tbsp tahini, add a tiny bit of sugar and a few drops of water, then whisk until it's a thick, shiny frosting-like substance. Daub this on top of the cherries, and YUM. Plus the fat and protein helps me not get ravenous immediately after.
posted by mynameisluka at 6:06 PM on September 5, 2008

I've kept to my diet through daily doses of Skinny Cow chocolate fudge ice cream cones. Not "healthy" per se... but low cal and low fat, and for me, they keep me from feeling miserable and like I'm going without, so it's easier to keep to healthy meals.
posted by Failure31 at 6:11 PM on September 5, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Little muffins freeze really well.
posted by slightlybewildered at 6:14 PM on September 5, 2008

Honestly, just eat the cupcake. If you take good care of yourself and mostly eat well, taking a trip to the land of glorious chocalatey fatty nom nom nom isn't going to kill you.
posted by dame at 6:58 PM on September 5, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

Also, I find buying expensive sweets from someplace out of the way is the best option: if you make it difficult to get it, you'll only go when you really want to.
posted by dame at 7:00 PM on September 5, 2008

Holy crap, baklava is nowhere near healthy. Serious.

I would try a sugar fast. Sugar is honest-to-God addictive, and the more you give yourself it the more you will want it.

As for chocolate, perhaps you can work yourself up to eating very, very dark chocolate (like over 75% cacao)? It's more satisfying in smaller quantities, and the lower-cacao, more sugary stuff tastes like shit after you're used to the dark stuff.
posted by schroedinger at 7:19 PM on September 5, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

It seems like a stretch, but this article tells you that when you crave sweets, your body is really craving other things. I really don't see how liver, cruciferous vegetables, and eggs could satisfy, but it can't hurt to try.

If you do end up making your own breads and muffins at home, you could always give away the extra. You'll be very popular! You could take them to work, wrap them in cellophane and tie with a ribbon, etc.
posted by Barbecue at 7:23 PM on September 5, 2008

It sounds to me like you eat more healthily than 99% of the Western world, so I don't think it's a problem if you indulge a couple of times a week. However, a good way to set limits on your consumption is to upgrade the quality of the desserty goodness you crave. See, if you only buy yourself the best dark chocolate, the creamiest all-natural-ingredients ice cream, or the freshest from the bakery muffin you can find ... you can't afford/feel guilty about splurging on as much sugar as if you get something cheaper. Or, to get it cheaply, you have to make it yourself, and most of us don't have time to bake every day. So there's an inherent limit in the consumption of good product compared to buying grocery store bulk. Not that I'm not occasionally tempted by the donut holes at my local supermarket. So frosty... Plus, better-quality foods are often made with healthier ingredients - less high-fructose corn syrup and all that jazz.
posted by bettafish at 7:43 PM on September 5, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

How about chocolate-covered fruit? Either fresh (strawberries are perfect for this) or dried (mangoes, pineapple, etc.). You get a little bit of something good for you with your unhealthy but satisfying chocolate. If you make your own, you'll get a good sense of how much chocolate you're taking in each time you cover a piece of fruit.
posted by bassjump at 7:45 PM on September 5, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

This is one of those things that sounded ridiculous when I first heard it, but my weight-loss-conscious roommate tried it and the results were delicious: take ordinary pre-packaged brownie mix and instead of adding milk, eggs, etc., when you bake it...add canned black beans. High-fiber, high-protein, low-fat, and yummy.
posted by kittyprecious at 8:02 PM on September 5, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

I like getting Asian sweets--they're less sweet, which seems to help keep my cravings in check. Also, as I get used to less-sweet stuff, the truly sweet stuff becomes kinda gross and therefore easier to resist.

Treats made with mochi (a type of rice) are the most satisfying for me, because they're chewier than the chewiest brownies. In a decent-sized Asian grocery, you should be able to find chocolate-covered cookie-like things or boxes of chocolates that use mochi instead of marshmallow for a chewy filling. Neither of them is as sweet as Western versions would be.

Also look for chocolate Cheetos. Really. They're corn puffs but dipped in not-too-sweet chocolate, or made with cocoa flour mixed with the corn.

Or try daifuku, but you might find the red bean paste in the middle to be too sweet or intense (I scrape out about half of it). I like the strawberry daifuku the best--the brand I get has a light, subtle strawberry flavor.

Finally, you might try making your own rice pudding, using brown rice and less sugar than recipes call for. It's filling, chewy, and sweet, but not too sweet.
posted by PatoPata at 9:49 PM on September 5, 2008

Meringues! Supposedly a version can even be made with Splenda.
posted by booksandlibretti at 9:53 PM on September 5, 2008

raw cashew nuts! no added sugar, very sweet.
posted by beccyjoe at 7:40 AM on September 6, 2008

I keep a large bag of dark chocolate M&Ms in the house. When I need something sweet, I fill a small custard cup with M&Ms (I've never weighed them, but it's a smaller portion than a regular bag of M&Ms). I eat them slowly, letting them melt before I crunch the shells. I'm always satisfied at the end, and I've eaten about half a normal "serving".
posted by workerant at 9:41 AM on September 6, 2008

Whipped sweet potato - yum!
posted by 26.2 at 2:44 PM on September 6, 2008

I try a trick similar to workerant's, only with me it's chocolate almonds. They last a good while if you suck on them one at a time until all the chocolate's melted off the almond. I also make my own yogurt. And dried mangoes are so sweet they're almost too sweet for me.

Damn, this thread is making me want the maple mandarin cake that's downstairs in my fridge.
posted by orange swan at 4:50 PM on September 6, 2008

I don't know where you live, but man...Tasti D Lite does it for me every time and is unbelievable, almost suspiciously low-cal. I know they aren't located everywhere, but there are variations on the chain springing up in lots of places.
posted by lxs at 5:27 PM on September 6, 2008

Another vote for good quality dark chocolate (a few squares of Lindt tends to do it for me), and I've found that at work when I get sugar cravings, I have a container of assorted nuts (almonds, macadamias, cashews etc, with some yoghurt covered sultanas). Works a treat.
posted by chronic sublime at 3:23 AM on September 7, 2008

I'm a sugar nut as well, and I have to agree that just staying away from the stuff is the best bet. That said, a bowl or two of this kettle corn (has to be this brand, at least for me) does the trick.
posted by CrazyGabby at 5:49 AM on September 7, 2008