Finding low-carbohydrate sweet foods was once very difficult. All eight cakes listed in "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease" 1996 book have at least 20 grams of carbohydrates per serving. The U.S. government doesn't define "low carb," but the Atkins Diet permits 20 grams of carbohydrates daily in its first two weeks and blames carbohydrates for increasing the percentage of obese Americans. The popularity of anti-carb diets created a market for controlled carbohydrates, including sweets.
Chocolate
The sugar in carbohydrates cause body fat by rapidly increasing blood-sugar levels rapidly, while the fiber in carbohydrates doesn't, according to advocates of eating low-carb foods such as the Atkins Diet and the South Beach Diet. This is bad news for sweet-lovers because "the sweeter the taste, the more sugar is present," according to the book "The South Beach Diet." Chocolate, in particular, has a lot of sugar and carbohydrates. Thirteen of the 17 candies listed in Ornish's book have at least 10 grams of carbohydrates per serving.
The solution is controlled carbohydrates. They "typically contain a mere 10 percent of the carbohydrate of the standard fare," by replacing sugar with sucralose, soy flour and other "controlled carb ingredients," according to "Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution," which reports that sucralose makes foods taste sweet. Many health-food stores now sell controlled carbohydrates, including chocolate bars. You can also cook low-carb chocolate cakes and truffles with controlled carbs replacing sugar. Other low-carb chocolates include chocolate-covered mints and Tootsie Rolls.
Other Desserts
Sugars that make foods sweet come in a variety of forms. Sugar is fructose in fruit, lactose in dairy foods, maltose in beer and sucrose in table sugar, according to "The South Beach Diet." Controlled carbohydrates that replace these sugars with low-carb sweeteners such as sucralose can give you a wide option of low-carb desserts. Fructose, lactose and maltose should be avoided, while sucralose "does not raise blood sugar," according to Atkins.
The controlled-carb desserts that Atkins recommends includes nonlactose ice cream, shake mixes, strawberry shakes and vanilla shakes. You can also prepare ginger flan, Italian almond cream, banana custard, chiffon cake and coconut macaroons by using sugar substitutes instead of sugar, according to "Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution." Each of these recipes has two to seven grams of carbohydrates per serving.
Fruits
Fruits are often considered sweet foods because they contain fructose, a form of sugar. However, some fruits are better low-carb choices than others. For example, berries are considered an excellent low-carb food, and an excellent sweet food, because strawberries, raspberries and blueberries have only 2.7, 3.6 and 5.1 grams of carbohydrates per serving, while bananas and pears have 23.7 and 25.1, respectively. Berries should be eaten as soon as possible because "they don't keep well," wrote Atkins.
Choosing fruits over sweet fruit juices is important because fruits have fiber, while the juices are "dumping too much sugar into your bloodstream," wrote "The South Beach Diet" author Dr. Arthur Agatston. Mixing fruits with chocolate can also help people concerned about carbohydrates. Agatston recommends dipping strawberries and apricots, which have 3.9 grams of carbs per serving, in chocolate.
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