Sweet Swaps

Sometimes you cave in to your cravings for something sweet. Don’t beat yourself up. Feeding your sweet tooth doesn’t have to bust your diet or blow out your waistline.

coffee and biscotti By swapping out some of your favorites sugar-laden treats for some tasty lower-calorie options, you can give in without totally giving up.

Before your weak moment, have some of these alternatives handy:

Ditch: Ice cream
Grab: Sorbet
Reason: Ice cream is dense with calories and fat, but especially in the summer, a cool, refreshing treat is the most satisfying option. Sorbet gives you the same frozen taste as ice cream without all the fat, plus you’ll save from 160 calories up to a whopping 560 calories per cup.

Ditch: Cookies
Grab: Biscotti
Reason: Cookies are for monsters and kids. Try dipping biscotti in your coffee instead of an Oreo in milk. Generally, one piece of biscotti has just about 125 to 150 calories. Of course, a fistful of cookies can easily quadruple that calories count.

Ditch: Birthday cake
Grab: Angel food cake
Reason: Sure, you need to have something to put the candles in, but traditional birthday cake is packed with fat, sugar, and calories. There can be more than 300 calories in even a small sliver of cake. Make your wish come true with lighter, fluffier angel food cake, which has about 120 calories in a more generous slice.

Ditch: Milk chocolate bar
Grab: Strawberries dipped in dark chocolate
Reason: Chocolate cravings may be the strongest pull on that sweet tooth, but a big bite of the typical milk chocolate bar tops 200 calories. Compare that to a cup of strawberries at only 50 calories, a drizzling of darker chocolate also contains antioxidants.

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