Eating too many sweets is bad for your health, contributing to weight gain, diabetes and other diseases. However, everyone naturally likes sweets, perhaps a trait left over from ancient times when sweet foods were hard to find, but humans needed them for the calories and the energy boost. Nowadays a 300-calorie candy bar can do serious damage to a 1500-calorie diet. A natural solution is to eat fresh and dried fruit.
Benefits
Besides satisfying your sweet tooth, eating fresh fruit helps to reduce your risk of diabetes, some types of cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Fruit provides potassium, fiber, vitamin C, folate and many antioxidants, all of which help to keep you healthy. Six apricots, 1 cup of berries, 1/2 small cantaloupe, 1 cup of cherries, 1/4 of a large honeydew melon, 2 kiwis, 1 nectarine or peach, 1 large orange or 1/2 of a large papaya each have from 70 to 115 calories, much less than the calories in a candy bar or other sweet snack made with refined sugar.
Dried Fruit
Dried fruit is sweeter than fresh fruit, so you need to eat less. One oz. of dates and 1 oz. of dried apricots both contain about 80 calories and are sweet enough to satisfy your sweet tooth. Dried sweet cherries and raisins have about 87 calories per oz. The secret is to weigh your snack so you don't mindlessly eat too many calories.
Fruit Juice
Fruit juice is sweet, but it is also relatively high in calories. If you often drink fruit juice instead of water, you are consuming too many calories. Think of fruit juice as a food, rather than a beverage. Limit a serving of fruit juice to 8 oz. once a day. You are much better off eating whole fruit. It satisfies your hunger more than juice because it contains fiber as well as sweetness.
Add Nuts to Your Fruit
Once a day, add 1 oz. of nuts to your fruit. Nuts give you important antioxidants, healthy oil, fiber and protein. Almonds, cashews, peanuts, pine nuts and pistachios all have about 160 calories per oz., about 1/4 cup. The protein in the nuts will help your blood sugar stabilize so that you stay satisfied longer after eating.
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