Dr. Pat’s Health Tips: Just Enough Dessert…

I love to bake…I feel so creative when I can serve a homemade dessert that tastes so much better than the store-bought version. And home baking also gives me the opportunity to make some healthy substitutions along the way.

Win-win? Not exactly. Homemade or not, pies, cakes and cookies can still pack a hefty number of calories. My delicious choco-chini cake is certainly lower in fat and healthier than a zucchini-free equivalent, but it is still a dessert…

Can we indulge in sweets without too many extra calories? Yes! Try these tricks to incorporate sweets into a healthy diet…

• Serve individual portions. When I talk with my young patients about sweets, I often tell them to “eat one cookie, not five cookies”. That may seem obvious, but it is not so easy when the serving plate is piled high. 
  

• Smaller servings. Of course, smaller portions have fewer calories. So measure cookie dough with a tablespoon scoop for smaller and more uniform cookies and they will also bake more evenly.

• Special times. Save fancy desserts for special occasions and special meals. The only “dessert” that most of us can afford to have every day is fresh fruit.

• Just enough. I made cookies for my son’s scout meeting today, but I baked only half the batch. I’ll freeze the remainder of the dough (or refrigerate for up to a week), then bake just a few cookies at a time.

• Out of sight, out of mind. Avoid temptation by keeping sweet treats out of sight. Store extra cookies or baked goods in the freezer, or better yet, share extras with neighbors and co-workers. They will love you for it!

• Add fiber. Fiber-rich ingredients make healthy additions to dessert recipes because fiber can decrease the absorption of fat! (Hmmm…like oatmeal cookies! ) Fruit and veggie ingredients (like applesauce, carrots and zucchini) add moisture that can replace some of the fat in a recipe…another calorie saver.

Tip of the day…Next time you make chocolate chip cookies add 2 cups of oats along with the 2 cups of chips (and decrease the flour in the recipe by ½ cup). I love the texture of chocolate chip oat cookies so much better than plain. You might never make plain chocolate chip cookies again!