Don't deprive yourself during the holidays. It's okay to indulge in a sweet treat every now and then. Just make sure you're smart about how you indulge in desserts. You can take a smaller portion of traditional desserts. Or, you can modify a family-favorite dessert. Tweak the recipe into a more nutritious one without losing the flavor.
More: 2 Recipes for Healthy Holiday Treats
Here are six tips to makeover your favorite holiday dessert and still keep that sweet flavor:
Cut the Fat and Calories
To cut calories and saturated fat replace full-fat dairy products with low-fat alternatives. In baked goods such as sweet breads, try nonfat buttermilk in place of cream or milk.
More: How to Conquer Your Sugar Addiction
Say Buh-Bye Fat
Replace half of the fat (butter or oil) with plain yogurt, mashed bananas or apple sauce.
More: The Health Benefits of Pumpkin
Get Whipped
Substitute whipped butter for regular butter (whipped butter has half the calories and saturated fat as regular butter). Refrigerate the dough for at least one hour before baking to ensure a similar end product.
Get Heart Healthy
Replace butter with heart-healthy oil such as Canola, peanut or corn oil. Unlike butter, oil does not contain air; therefore, use 1/4 to 1/3 less oil when replacing butter with oil.
More: 5 Oils Perfect for Everyday Use
Add a Little Nutrition
To add protein, fiber and nutrients, replace at least half of the flour with whole wheat pastry flour.
Go Nuts!
Add raisins or other dried fruit or nuts to cookies or bars instead of chocolate morsels. Or, decrease the chocolate morsels by half and replace with dried fruit or nuts.
More: Infographic: How to Burn Off Those Thanksgiving Day Calories
Perfect your nutrition to boost your performance. Sign up for a race near you.
