The Best and Worst Desserts for Kids
The worst desserts for kids—and some smart alternatives.
Sweets: They're what make kids' hearts flutter. Candy, cookies, cake—if it's chock-full of sugar and sure to induce a total crash in an hour and a half, they love it. (In fact, if they're especially clever, they might even have tried to sneak it onto your shopping list. Not that we ever did that.) You don't want to be Boot Camp Mom (or Dad), barking punishments each time your kid reaches for the Oreos, and you also don't want to deprive them of life's little pleasures.
It doesn't need to be complicated. People have been happily indulging in cakes and cookies and ice cream for thousands of years. Yet the obesity crisis—and the accompanying rise in diabetes and heart-disease rates—has only come into being in the past 30 years or so.
Why? Because the simple, delicious, indulgent desserts of previous generations have been replaced with monstrosity versions of themselves. Like Bruce Banner getting hit with a dose of gamma rays, today's desserts have become giant Hulk-like incarnations of once-innocent delights, thanks to all the added fats, sugars and chemicals. And if you make the wrong choice, indulging once can be the caloric equivalent of indulging two, three or four times.
Here, you can learn how to let your kids indulge with limited damage. Your child could literally have dessert after most dinners and still stay slim or have dessert once a week and grow fat. How? Simply by knowing the truth about America's best and worst desserts!
WORST "HEALTHY" PACKAGED DESSERT
Tofutti Vanilla (½ cup)
210 calories
13 g fat (2 g saturated)
15 g sugars
The label touts the fact that Tofutti has no butterfat and no cholesterol. While these claims are technically true (Tofutti is not made from dairy, so by definition it can't have butterfat or cholesterol), they might as well advertise "no razor blades inside!" Because touting what's not in this product simply obscures the truth about what is: Tofutti is as loaded with fat and sugar as most full-fledged ice creams. (It also has about 10 ingredients too many, including a big helping of corn oil.) If you're looking for an honest, low-calorie nondairy ice cream, stick with It's Soy Delicious; their whole line of products is great, and you can cut your calorie intake nearly in half.
Eat This Instead!
It's Soy Delicious Vanilla (½ cup)
110 calories
1.5 g fat (0 g saturated)
9 g sugars
Tip: Before you make your next shopping list, check out our list of the 125 healthiest supermarket foods.
WORST SUPERMARKET ICE CREAM
Häagen-Dazs Chocolate Peanut Butter (½ cup)
360 calories
24 g fat (11 g saturated)
24 g sugars
Häagen-Dazs produces its ice creams using only a few simple ingredients; problem is, those ingredients are heavy cream, egg yolks and sugar, making these ice creams consistently the most calorie-dense in the freezer section. This peanut-butter blast to your kid's gut takes the cake—literally—packing an astounding 1,440 calories into every pint-sized carton. Compare it with what Breyers has to offer—for a third of the calories.
Eat This Instead!
Breyers All Natural Vanilla and Chocolate
130 calories
7 g fat (4.5 g saturated)
15 g sugars
Tip: Here are 11 ice creams with less than 200 calories. And they all taste great, too.
WORST COOKIE
Einstein Bros. Iced Sugar Cookie
480 calories
15 g fat (6 g saturated)
46 g sugars
This iced sugar cookie has as much sugar as two and a half Twinkies, and more calories than a McDonald's Quarter Pounder. Indulging too often in a fearsome flood of sugar like this can set your child up for insulin resistance later on, the first step in a long, sad march toward diabetes. Much better to snack when you want but keep the portion size down so you don't wallop your body all at once with a giant caloric hit. That's why the decadent, but mini, chocolate mudslide is a solid choice.
Eat This Instead!
Mini Chocolate Mudslide Cookie
160 calories
8 g fat (4.5 g saturated)
19 g sugars
Does stuffing yourself until you feel nauseated really satisfy your desire? You need to stop and say, "is this really making me feel good?" Is food satisfying a craving, or is it causing the craving to begin with? Same goes for alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. "Addiction" is BS. You are making a choice to create a desire. When you make a conscious decision to stop, you will no longer have the desire. It is really that simple. Ice Cream can be as "addicting" as cigarettes. "Addiction" is not a disease or condition, but a choice you make over and over again. When you stop making that choice, the choice will stop presenting itself as an option. A hard break-up with someone you truly love is another example. Once you decide to stop figuring out ways to get them to like you again, you stop having the desire for them to like you! Quitting anything only has the illusion of hurting you, it is really you hurting yourself until you decide to let go! Stop torturing and brainwashing yourself. Shut that inner-dialogue up. You can ignore people you don't like, so ignore that greedy little voice that you know isn't you, but a creation of your design; a nemesis of parellel wit but no will. You don't need food no matter what it says. You can live for almost a month without it. Simply stop overeating and find some other way to persue happiness, unless you truly enjoy food more than feeling healthy. If you are just worried about your looks, don't stop, it will literally be in vain. You will never look like Tyra Banks or Lindsay Lohan or Brad Pitt. Not without millions of dollars, a time machine, a personal trainer, a professional photographer and a plastic surgeon. Their job is to look good...your job is to FEEL good. Theres plenty of people just like you who think you are damn sexy! Once you realize how truly unhealthy you FEEL, you will be able to stop in a heartbeat without looking back, whether it changes your appearance or not!
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Ask the Kids' Health Expert: Dr. Jay L. Hoecker
MSN Health & Fitness does not provide medical or any other health care advice, diagnosis or treatment.
