People love to eat desserts, but most of them are scared to eat. The reason why? Because they are worried about their weight gain. They are not wrong. Sweets or desserts are a very tricky thing.

Is sugar bad for you?

Sugar can be bad for you as it leads to weight gain, increases the risk of type-2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer and fatty liver, accelerates the skin aging process, and many more. Said that it does not mean you completely cut off sugar and don’t enjoy your dessert. No, that would be too cruel. With eating smart, especially with eating sweets in moderation, you can indulge your sweet tooth without getting into the complications that sugar leads to.

Most people ask when to eat dessert or what is the best time to eat dessert. Let’s first understand when you should not eat dessert.

When you should not eat dessert?

On an empty stomach

Avoid eating desserts or sweets on an empty stomach. Your body absorbs it faster and it leads to a sudden spike in your blood sugars and then a big crash after a few hours.

After meals when you are already full

People like to combine dessert with a meal or finish off their meal with a sweet. However, according to Ayurveda, if you eat sweets at the end of meals, you are slowing down your digestion. Also, you might not enjoy your dessert that well if you have it immediately after your meals.

Post evening or after dinner

Is it bad to eat dessert right after dinner? Yes, it is.

Avoid sugary treat after 6 pm, the reason being that the body winds up for the day and doesn’t need simple sugars for the leftover activities. So if you have something sweet closer to bedtime, your sugar levels increase and because the energy stays unused, it gets stored as fats.

With sweetened tea and coffee

If you are having a cake, pastry, doughnut or a cookie with tea or coffee with sugar in it as well, you are eating too much sugar at one go. Almost 4-5 teaspoons. That is quite a lot of sugar that you do not want at one time.

Cut the sugar from that tea or coffee and enjoy your muffin, pancake or cookie.

When you are eating alone

When you are eating alone, you tend to eat more. Adopt a simple rule of having sweets only when there are people around. This way you will share it with your friends or colleagues and have less sweet.

When you are watching TV

It’s tried and tested. When you are eating while watching TV, you don’t realise how much you end up eating. Hence, switch off your TV and then enjoy your dessert. You will eat consciously and hence less than you need.

How often you should eat sweets?

We would say – DAILY. Yes, you can eat your sweets daily. Eating sweets daily can be healthy or unhealthy, depending on how you indulge. If you follow these rules, you can actually enjoy your dessert every day.

• Have desserts as snacks. When you have desserts in between meals, the nutrients and fiber from the meal help to stabilise your blood sugar from the sweets.
• Sugary treats are best eaten in the first half of the day, as the digestive system is more active earlier in the day. Early morning and before noon are the best times to indulge in sugar.
• Limit the portion size. Don’t indulge in an entire pastry or giant-sized doughnut or brownie. Cut into a few pieces and enjoy 1 piece every day. Eat your sweets always in moderation. This way you can eat your sweets daily.
• Indulge in dark chocolate over milk chocolate, an ice cream over heavy cake or nut -based sweets instead of sugar and carb laden sweets such as gulab jamun.
• Eat desserts made at home using toned milk, nuts and fresh fruits which take care of both the calories and taste buds.
• Opt for natural and unrefined sweet options like dates and figs, dried berries, coconut sugar, jaggery, etc. to sweeten your desserts. In your breakfast cereal, add sliced bananas, chopped dates and figs instead of refined sugar.

By following these hacks, you can eat your sweets daily without weight gain. However, remember that, weight loss is directly proportional to your eating. You eat less, you lose weight, that is the fundamental we have learnt and experienced so far.