Dried fruits, marmalade, marshmallows, fruit pastes, chocolate, honey, and fruit-yogurt cake—these treats won’t derail your slim figure. Sweets with a permissible amount of sugar and light carbohydrates are not only harmless but can also be beneficial. Discover more about the phenomenon of Eastern sweets and explore recipes for acceptable desserts.
“Good” Sugar
Completely cutting out sweets can lead to physical weakness and diminished cognitive abilities. Sugar is essential for supplying the brain, muscles, and internal organs with energy. However, an excess in the diet can trigger premature aging, obesity, and diabetes. Therefore, a balance is necessary, taking into account how the body absorbs these components.
Chemically, sugar is a combination of fructose and glucose molecules that form sucrose. Glucose is the primary source of energy, accounting for about 80% of our energy expenditure. This component neutralizes toxins and produces serotonin, the “happiness hormone.” When fructose is broken down, it forms simple carbohydrates that transform into fat molecules. This serves as our energy “battery” for times when fuel is low—a source of heat and energy.
Dietitians refer to fruit sugar and milk sugar—fructose and lactose—as “good” sugars. Foods with low sugar content also won’t harm your figure. If you indulge in them before lunch, the nutrients will benefit your body (the latest time to consume sweets should be limited to 4 PM).
The best choices are natural sweet products (fruits, honey, syrups) and pastries made with safe ingredients. If your diet goal is weight loss, you should choose desserts not only with healthy components but also considering their caloric content.
Healthy sweets are often high in calories due to nutritious sources of healthy fats like nuts and seeds. You don’t have to completely give up sweets; you can simply eat smaller portions. Opt for homemade products, and when preparing them yourself, avoid harmful ingredients.
Healthy Desserts
In healthy eating (HE), acceptable sweets are those without artificial colors, flavor enhancers, thickeners, trans fats, refined sugar, white flour, and other empty ingredients. Since the “inner content” is hard to assess in finished products, distinguishing between healthy desserts and harmful sweets requires some confectionery knowledge. Two identical cakes or pastries can fall into different categories. If a healthy marshmallow consists of apple puree, agar-agar, and a plant-based thickener like aquafaba, its store-bought “twin” is packed with refined sugar and artificial additives. Here’s what to look for when choosing healthy sweets.
Marmalade
Opt for natural fruit desserts that aren’t coated in sugar. Such products consist of apple puree, gelatin, agar, and digestion-friendly pectins. The main component of healthy marmalade is fructose, which converts into beneficial glucose in the body.
Marshmallows
Natural sweets contain egg whites, powdered sugar, apple puree, and syrup. The sweet mass is based on partially acid-digested starch, a complex carbohydrate. This type of sugar is digested slowly, requiring effort from the body. This is why “proper” marshmallows don’t contribute to weight gain.
Fruit Paste
Common products usually contain a lot of refined sugar and artificial thickeners, while in healthy eating, fruit paste refers to dried fruit puree. The thick base is made from egg whites and jelly, while fruits and berries provide the sweet flavor. The composition of fruit paste is similar to that of marshmallows, with differences in the proportions of fruit mass. When made at home, fruit paste is dried in the oven without additional components. If using sour berries in a healthy dessert, you can add a natural sweetener like coconut sugar.
Oatmeal Cookies
The main ingredient in these sweets is oatmeal. The raw material contains complex carbohydrates that do not affect blood sugar levels. Oatmeal is rich in vitamin B6, which helps combat stress and normalize sleep. Just make sure you’re not consuming store-bought products with refined sugar and trans fats. The delicate texture of healthy cookies is achieved with coconut oil, while the sweet flavor comes from mineral-rich coconut sugar. When making them yourself, you can replace sugar with a harmless plant alternative—stevia. Given its bitter taste, combine it with other natural sweeteners.
Fruit-Yogurt Cake
A dessert made with fruits soaked in whipped natural yogurt and jelly can be healthy. However, cakes with rich cream, sponge cake, and whipped cream are off-limits for those looking to lose weight, as these products are high in fat.
Dark Chocolate
This healthy treat contains antioxidant flavonoids. Their health benefits include slowing down oxidation processes (aging), preventing the development of cancer cells, and strengthening blood vessels. However, only natural dark chocolate with 72-80% cocoa can be considered healthy. White and milk chocolates, as well as sweets with additives, are laden with sugar, soy, and vegetable fats. For comparison, the glycemic index of dark chocolate is 20, while that of milk chocolate is 70 (for weight loss, this index should not exceed 60).
If you’re health-conscious, choose bars without unnecessary additives (this doesn’t apply to nuts, seeds, and dried fruits): “healthy” chocolate consists of cocoa butter, cocoa mass, sugar, and lecithin. The best sugar is considered to be coconut sugar, and the best lecithin is sunflower lecithin. Cocoa powder is not welcome in the product: compared to cocoa mass, it is less valuable. Healthy chocolate should not contain milk fats or artificial ingredients.
Dried Fruits
The healthiest option in this category of desserts is prunes: they are less sweet than apricots, raisins, or dates. To avoid weight gain, a single serving should not exceed 40 grams. Dried fruits contain vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber. Seasonal fruits and berries, harvested and dried during ripening, are richer in valuable elements than fresh fruits that sit on shelves year-round. The daily limit for dried fruits in the diet is 30 grams. The product should be naturally dried, without chemicals. Natural dried fruits may not look as appealing as those treated with chemicals. Avoid shiny and bright sweets.
Healthy Candies
Our grandmothers knew about healthy treats: they were familiar with the taste of marzipan. This refers to a mixture of natural sweetener with ground almonds, which are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, B vitamins, and vitamin E. The value of Jerusalem artichoke syrup lies in its essential amino acids and 40% fiber content, while coconut sugar boasts a high concentration of minerals and the lowest glycemic index among sugars. Healthy candies include coconut sweets and salted caramel. They do not use animal products, refined sugar, or white flour.
An accessible alternative can be whole grain flour. Examples of healthy flour sources include chickpeas, amaranth, and spelt. Margarine (trans fats in its composition can lead to heart attacks, strokes, and cancer) is replaced in healthy sweets with coconut oil. When using butter, choose a product with 82% fat content: it is less likely to contain trans fats, which are considered more harmful than natural animal fats.
Honey
The benefits of this natural carbohydrate product make it the best substitute for sugar. Including honey in your diet, which is considered an unparalleled antidepressant, helps dieters maintain their spirits—a crucial prerequisite for successful weight loss.
Unusual Desserts: Quick and Easy Recipes
Here are some examples of healthy sweets you can make at home.
Chia Pudding
The advantages of this protein-rich healthy dessert include its unique flavor (with exotic seeds among the ingredients), nutritional value (17 grams of protein per 100 grams of superfood), and ease of preparation. The recipe is simple: mix chia seeds with plant or goat milk or yogurt and chill the pudding overnight. Cow’s milk is not used in healthy desserts due to undesirable intestinal reactions. Dried fruits, fresh berries, coconut and chocolate shavings, Jerusalem artichoke syrup, or mango puree can be added to chia pudding.
Healthy “Potato” Cookies
Each serving of these treats contains 130 calories.
For 10 cookies, you will need: 10 grams of cocoa; 50 grams each of prunes, almond flour, and oatmeal flour; and 30 grams each of unsweetened peanut butter, coconut flakes, and coconut oil.
After blending the prunes, coconut oil, peanut butter, and cocoa in a food processor, add the remaining ingredients and blend again.
Shape the mixture into balls or bars. Place the formed treats in the refrigerator for a few hours, and before serving, roll them in cocoa powder and coconut flakes.
No-Bake Beet Cake
The nutritional value per serving is 400 calories.
For 4 servings, you will need: half a beet, 80 grams of dried apricots, grapefruit (2 tablespoons of juice and zest), 15 grams of almond milk, 2 tablespoons of coconut oil, 30 grams of Jerusalem artichoke syrup, 25 grams of soaked walnuts, and 150 grams of cashews.
Blend the dried fruits with the walnuts in a food processor. Grease a round mold with coconut oil and spread the mixture evenly. Flatten the base.
Blend the cubed beet with the remaining ingredients, spread the mixture over the base, and flatten it again. Refrigerate the dessert overnight.
Apple Crumble
The nutritional value of the dessert is 350 calories.
For 4 servings, you will need: 1 kg of apples, an orange, 100 grams of oatmeal, 50 grams each of coconut flakes and nuts, 30 grams of coconut oil, 40 grams of honey, and a sprig of rosemary.
Quickly sauté the diced apples over low heat, adding rosemary, zest, and juice from the orange.
The crumble topping will be a mixture of oatmeal, melted honey, coconut flakes, and coconut oil. Sprinkle it over the apples and nuts in a baking dish. Bake for half an hour at 180°C.
Long-Lasting Gingerbread
This healthy recipe takes us back to ancient times when only natural ingredients were used to make homemade sweets. Our ancestors once used honey instead of expensive imported sugar in gingerbread dough made from coarse flour. Thanks to this healthy preservative, the dessert could be stored for weeks without losing quality.
Gingerbread Dough:
- should be cooked, not raw;
- traditionally made not from wheat flour but from low-grade rye flour;
- mixed with honey and sour cream—without added sugar or molasses;
- contains no margarine or vegetable oil—only butter;
- allows for the addition of ground nuts, dried berries, and chopped dried fruits: prunes, raisins, apricots, or dates;
- does not require artificial leaveners: strong alcohol can be used instead (4 tablespoons of vodka per 1 kg of flour).
Gingerbread Filling:
- can consist of thick fruit preserves, grated zest, or chopped nuts;
- is placed between layers of dough with pinched edges.
Spice Mix
Traditionally, the dessert is flavored with spices and aromatic herbs (anise, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, almonds, ginger, vanilla, star anise, coriander, nutmeg, lemon or orange zest, black and red pepper): the gingerbread should be spicy. Dosage: 2 teaspoons of ground spice mix per 1 kg of liquid gingerbread dough.
Classic Gingerbread Recipe
You will need: 1 cup of flour, half a cup each of honey and chopped candied orange peel, 2 cups of strawberry or apricot jam, 50 grams of softened butter, 1 tablespoon of vodka, and 1 teaspoon each of baking soda, lemon juice, and ground dried orange zest.
Put honey in a pot, add water, and heat to 75°C (do not boil). Next, add half of the flour and the ground spices. Cool the mixed dough, add high-fat sour cream (200 grams per 1 kg of flour), eggs, and the second half of the flour. Add half a cup of rye flour first and half a cup after mixing all the ingredients to adjust the necessary viscosity. Mix immediately to avoid lumps. Knead for half an hour until a pliable state is reached (the dough should not be stiff).
Quickly shape the gingerbread and bake them for 20 minutes at 180°C. As they cool, the gingerbread will harden immediately. The longer the sweets sit, the tastier they become. The recommended storage time is one month. The gingerbread will not stale longer if stored in a closed box with a few pieces of dried apples.
Eastern Sweets
These treats consist of honey, raisins, spices, and nuts, quickly satisfying without excess sugars (exceptions include halva and rose jam).
Dried Figs, Dates, Dried Apricots
Eastern dessert recipes are not always accessible to our home cooks, but we have no shortage of imported dried fruits. Their benefits lie in soluble fibers and natural sugars. The value of Algerian, Moroccan, Israeli, Turkish, and Caucasian sweets is in their beneficial phytonutrients, vitamins, and antioxidants. In particular, dried figs are a treasure trove of fiber, potassium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese, calcium, chlorine, sodium, retinol (vitamin A), B vitamins, and vitamin K. Figs can heal coughs, bronchitis, constipation, and sexual disorders. Dried dates, figs, raisins, and dried apricots can be stored for a long time as a universal “first aid kit,” adding them to homemade desserts, drinks, and salads.
Halva
Traditional Uzbek sweets consist of honey, cream, pine nut oil, pistachios, walnuts, almonds, and cashews.
Churchkhela
This healthy confection is made from grape or fruit puree (60% of the ingredients), corn flour (30%), and nuts (10%): walnuts, hazelnuts, or almonds.
Turkish Sweets: Recipes
In moderation, Eastern desserts can be consumed regularly. They serve as a preventive measure against colds, neuroses, and digestive tract diseases. Homemade Turkish sweets boost immunity, enhance performance, and improve skin and hair condition.
Rahat Loukoum
This fruit assortment is one of the most popular treats in the East. Its name literally translates from Turkish as “piece of pleasure.” This product is called “delight” due to its high glucose content. Natural sugar is beneficial for brain function, nervous system health, and heart activity. There are classic loukoum and varieties with additives: honey, fig, fruit, nut, or floral.
For our recipe (for 400 grams of sweets), you will need: 200 grams of honey, 500 grams of oranges, a cup of cornstarch, and 200 ml of water.
In a thick-walled pot, dissolve the water and honey. In a separate bowl, squeeze the juice from two oranges and pour it into the pot with the sweet syrup. Add the cornstarch. Mix everything and place it over heat. Stir constantly until the mixture boils. It will thicken quickly. After boiling, continue to simmer the mixture over low heat for another 10 minutes. The finished mass should look sticky and shiny. Transfer it to a rectangular mold or bowl at least 2 cm deep, smooth it out, and cool it. After 15 minutes, the sweets will become firm and dense. Cut the mass directly in the mold into 2×2 cm squares. The separated pieces should be rolled in cornstarch or coconut flakes and placed in a bowl. Serve the Eastern sweets with mint leaves.
Kozinaki
The main ingredient in these popular children’s treats is seeds. The original Turkish recipe can be enhanced with local superfoods.
You will need: 300 grams of sugar, 50 grams of sesame seeds, and 100 grams each of sunflower and pumpkin seeds.
In a thick-bottomed pot, pour in the sugar and heat it over low heat, stirring until the crystals melt. Add the toasted seeds, mix, and spread it in a 2-centimeter layer on parchment to set.
Eastern desserts should be enjoyed with a fermented milk drink or traditional tea.