Healthy Nutrition that Satisfies Your Sweet Tooth

When you’re trying to eat healthy and lose weight, it can often feel like desserts are the first to go. This can be especially difficult if you have children and are trying to encourage healthy nutrition for your entire family. Good news! There are healthy foods that can help sweeten up your meals and snacks, satisfying your sweet tooth while still providing the benefits of good nutrition.

4 Ways to Get Healthy Nutrition and a Sweet Treat:

• Honey: Not just any honey will do. Look for raw, unfiltered honey to get the most health benefits. This all-natural sweetener contains phytonutrients, the good stuff we want from plants, and enzymes that promote proper digestion.
• Molasses: If you boiled sugarcane down into white sugar, you’d get a byproduct more commonly known as molasses. This super sweet and sticky syrup provides iron and minerals you won’t find in sugar or sugar substitutes.
• Cinnamon: Although not technically sweet, cinnamon adds another dimension of flavor to bland foods like toast or oatmeal. As an added bonus, there is research that suggests that cinnamon could help fight cancer. It also may regulate your blood sugar, which helps with weight loss.
• Coconut milk or flakes: Again, not necessarily a “sweet” taste, but certainly a popular dessert flavor. Adding this to fat free yogurt could fortify your meal with lauric acid, one of the fatty acids found in breast milk that helps boost immune systems.

There are a number of ways to introduce healthy nutrition to your family and your own diet. These four foods are examples of great ways to add flavor with nutrition.