The most recent USDA dietary guidelines, released in early 2016, urge us to cut down on added sugars—not the ones naturally present in fruits and milk, but the sweeteners you see on ingredient labels, ranging from plain white sugar to healthier-seeming sweeteners like agave nectar and honey. Added sugars are linked to cardiovascular disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cancer, and we Americans eat a whopping 5 1/2 tablespoons a day, on average. The recommendation is 2 tablespoons a day for women and 3 for men.
So what to do when you want dessert, yet care about your health? Try one (or more!) from our collection of not-too-sweets that fall within the USDA guidelines and are still incredibly satisfying, culled from the Sunset recipe treasury. None of them were created to be low-sugar desserts, we must tell you. They just naturally are that way.