Desserts And Puddings - How Healthy They Can Be?

Can desserts and puddings be called healthy? The only dessert that comes to mind to most of us is a salad composed of fruits - but even canned fruit salads are loaded with preservatives and sweetened syrups.

Dessert should be, by all odds, an 'in-moderation' side dish - and even then must be had in small quantities either after dinner or lunch. Dessert and puddings are usually not consumed on a daily basis, but can be an occasional pleasant treat after a meal. The consumption of sweet treats is usually attributed to special days and occasions - like pumpkin pie made of mashed pumpkin with milk, eggs and sugar and spiced cider during the Holiday Season.

What Makes Your Desserts And Puddings Healthy?

Fortunately desserts and puddings can become healthy too.

Cinnamon - a main ingredient in most desserts and puddings can help in regulating the levels of glucose in the blood. In a recent study, scientists offered one half of the group rice pudding blended with approximately three teaspoons of cinnamon; while the other half received a non-cinnamon variant of the dessert. It was studied that a couple of hours after eating, the subjects who consumed the cinnamon-laced pudding had substantially lesser levels of glucose in their blood than those who had consumed the unspiced version.

It was also observed that eating the cinnamon-spiced pudding slowed down the bowel movement of food from the digestive tract into the small intestine (also known as gastric emptying). Even though the scientists are not sure of how exactly cinnamon works in slowing digestion, the fact that it did so explained the reasons behind the low blood sugar.

With regards to commercially available desserts and puddings, reading the list of ingredients on the boxes can be quite disheartening. It is believed that any given commercially prepared dessert contains not less than fifteen substances or preservatives and additives, which are nothing but artificial substances and chemicals. From chemical compounds added to protect against decay or decomposition to three-letter abridged scientific symbols, the list of artificial substances can be unnerving. Preparing desserts and puddings at home is not labor intensive, even though some need to be prepared from start. Homemade preparations are far healthier for most people and should be encouraged rather than purchasing commercial preparations.

Desserts and puddings made at home makes for a better option than manufactured baked dishes, pies or frozen desserts. Frozen desserts are often high in saturated creams, fats, oils and sugar. Most healthy desserts are easy to make and can be prepared in a matter of hours and one can choose from a wide variety of healthy ingredients such as fresh fruits, to make flapjacks, puddings and traditional baked dishes and toasts. Interestingly, fresh fruit in itself makes for a great dessert.

Submitted on January 16, 2014