SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Last week, I shared healthy swaps for snacks and I got so many requests to do healthy swaps for desserts, so that's what I'm doing here.
Avoiding highly processed sugars, especially ones like high fructose corn syrup, is one of the best things you can do for your health. But, I know a lot of us have a sweet tooth, including myself!
Making desserts yourself is best because you know exactly what's going in it and you can use better sugars, like date sugar or coconut sugar. But if you're at the store and your sweet tooth strikes, here are some swaps that I recommend.
My favorite ice cream is Vixen Kitchen. It's made with simple, organic ingredients. Their vanilla only has five ingredients! It's made from cashews and sweetened with maple syrup. Besides making your own banana or fruit ice cream, this is the healthiest ice cream I've come across, and it's so delicious.
Now, for the chocolate lovers. Choosing dark chocolate over milk chocolate is a better option. It not only cuts out the dairy, but dark chocolate usually has less sugar than milk chocolate. I'm a fan of HU Kitchen chocolate as they use just a few organic ingredients and they're sweetened with coconut sugar. They even have chocolate-covered almonds and other nuts for a healthy sweet and savory dessert.
Now, I'm a mom and my son has recently discovered a love for popsicles, especially during these hotter months. Most popsicles are full of artificial flavors and colors plus refined sugar, which are all horrible for kids' health. I recently discovered Jonny Pops, which are made with better ingredients and they color them with real food, like cherries and watermelon.
If you're a cookie lover, Simple Mills makes gluten-free cookies that are sweetened with coconut sugar, which is a better option than most store-bought cookies you'll find.
Dried fruit is another good option for satisfying your sweet tooth. I'm also a big fan of Lara Bars which uses dates for sweetness.
WATCH MORE FROM MEG UNPROCESSED ON ABC10: RECIPE: Healthy strawberry lemon slushy | Meg Unprocessed