Step by Step (Chapter 3): Food Groups -- Sweets & Snacks

Food Groups:
Sweets & Snacks

Some sweets and snacks -- like cakes, pies, cookies, cheese crackers, and some chips -- often are high in saturated fat, cholesterol, and calories. Buy them only seldom, if at all. But other foods in this group can be used as part of a well-balanced diet.

Here are some low fat sweets to buy and use now-and-then:

angel food cake topped with fruit puree or fresh fruit slices;
nonfat or low fat brownies, cakes, cheesecakes, cupcakes, and pastries;
nonfat or low fat cookies like animal crackers, devil's food cookies, fig and other fruit bars, ginger snaps, and vanilla or lemon wafers;
frozen nonfat or low fat yogurt, fruit ices, ice milk, sherbet, and sorbet;
gelatin desserts;
graham crackers;
puddings made with skim or 1 percent milk.

Just remember that, while these treats may be low in fat, most are not low in calories. So choose them only every so often, especially if you are trying to control your weight.

Not all snack foods are high in saturated fat and cholesterol. Buy some of these low fat snacks and keep them on hand:

bagels;
bread sticks*;
unsweetened ready-to-eat cereals*;
frozen grapes or banana slices and other fresh fruit;
fruit leather or other dried fruit;
nonfat or low fat crackers* like melba toast;
rice cakes, rye crisp, and soda crackers;
no-oil baked tortilla chips*;
popcorn (air-popped or "light")*;
pretzels*;
raw vegetables with nonfat or low fat dip.
(* If you are watching your sodium intake, be sure to look for low sodium or unsalted types.)

See Table 8: Sweets and Snacks for more information.

Sweets & Snacks -- TRY IT!

Check off one of these things to try. Do it today!

The next time I crave a cookie, I will try a new nonfat type. (But not too many -- remember the calories!)

Instead of buying ice cream, I will try ice milk or nonfat frozen yogurt.

Instead of snacking on regular chips, I'll try pretzels or air-popped popcorn.