Five Food Swaps When You Crave a Sweet Treat
Do you find your sweet tooth just won't go away? No problem! When you simply MUST satisfy your sweet cravings, there are clever food swaps you can make that will deliver much better nutrition from your sweet treat. 🥳
We've put together our top 5 food swaps when you crave a sweet treat. These swaps are alternatives that not only deliver nutritional benefits bit will also satisfy your sweet tooth, a double win!! 😎
- Craving a brownie? Try this instead: Raw Hemp Brownie or Peanut Butter Jelly Brownie.
- Craving Chocolate Biscuits? Try Choc Raspberry thins or Chewy Double Chocolate Cookies.
- Craving Cheesecake? Try our Berry Swirl Cheesecake or Strawberry Cheesecake Choccie Bars.
- Craving Caramel Slice? Try these Caramel Filled Caramel Balls or Peanut Butter Caramel Slice.
- Craving Lollies? This is a tough one! Lollies are the ultimate sugar craving and these little sugar bombs have no nutritional value at all so are best avoided. So next time a lolly craving hits, try these Lolly Cake Bites instead.
Why swap for healthier sweet treats?
The answer is simple, get better nutrition from your treats. Most traditional sweet treats are low on nutritional value, they tend to be:
- High in sugar
- High in refined flour – this has all the goodness of the ‘germ’ removed. Almost all of the essential nutrients are removed in processing white flour. Almost off the fibre is also removed.
- Full of preservatives, flavourings, colouring and numbers! Take Tim Tams for example, a quick look at the ingredients shows sugar and wheat flour as the first and second ingredients. They also contain four food colourings, two types of emulsifiers (including “E476” – also known as polyglycerol polyricinoleate – SAY WHAT??) among other ingredients.
- Eating nutritionally poor, high sugar foods leads to spikes in blood sugar followed by insulin release which over time can result in insulin resistance, opening the door to diabetes.
- After we have digested nutritionally poor, high sugar foods our bodies go into a post-sugar slump and we crave more sugar to get back onto a sugar high.
- We need lots of nutritionally dense foods for optimal health and traditional sweet treats do not deliver!
What are the benefits of healthier treats?
All of the healthier treats referenced in this blog are higher in macronutrients - fibre, good fats (think Omega 3’s and 6’s) and protein than their traditional counterparts. They are also higher in micronutrients - think vitamins and minerals and lower in sugar.
Clean Mixes healthier treats include nutritionally dense ingredients like nuts, chia seeds, hemp protein, hemp hearts, coconut and dried berries.
So next time your sugar craving strikes, make the switch to a healthier alternative. Your body will thank you!