Sweet tooth, anyone? As a dietitian, it still comes as a surprise when my clients tell me that they have a sweet tooth, almost as a confession of guilt. It’s ok to share if you have one. Sometimes my clients share this, with their heads hung low and eyes down to the carpet, like it’s some sort of moral failure. 

First things first: it’s okay to have a sweet tooth!

Sugar, and how much we consume, has been such a topic of heated debate around its (potential) contribution to chronic disease and metabolic health. It’s hard to escape the feeling that any amount of sugar is B-A-D. 

I’m Angie, Registered Dietitian, sports nutrition expert, and certified Intuitive Eating counselor. I love helping athletes find easy and delicious ways to fuel and recover from all of their training sessions. However, not everything we consume as athletes needs to have some performance benefit. My work as an Intuitive Eating Counselor has cemented my belief that having foods in our life that provide pleasure is just as important as having foods that help us get enough fiber or protein.  

I am a proud lover of sweet things, but I also have a pretty strong history of diabetes in my family. It has been a bit of a journey finding ways to include sweet treats that feel right to me. Here, I’m sharing some of the thought processes I use to help my clients find balance about what sweet treats are right for them. By the end of this blog post, you will learn: 

• Are there guidelines about sugar/sweets?
• How often can I include a sweet treat? Is every day too often? 
• My picks for the 5 best sweet treats that do double duty – help you satisfy that sweet tooth and provide performance benefits to you, as an athlete.
• Is there a time of day that is best to include a sweet treat?

First of all, how do we know how much sugar is okay to eat? Let’s look at the guidelines from our national and international health organizations. 

 

Are there guidelines about consuming sweets?  

The key ingredient that makes a sweet treat is…you guessed it, some kind of sugar. Whether that sweetness comes from refined sugar, honey, maple syrup, coconut sugar, or any sweetener, these are all considered “added sugars.”

There are recommendations from major health organizations on how much added sugar we should be consuming for optimal health.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that less than 10% of our total daily calories come from sugar, and perhaps even less (5%) might have an added benefit (1). 

The American Heart Association recommends we target that lower range at 5% of total calories (2).

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans suggests no more than 10% of our total calories (3), similar to WHO recommendations.

Just to be crystal clear: these recommendations are for added sugars, not naturally occurring sugars in things like fruit, vegetables, or milk sugar (lactose) in dairy products.

For many athletes who require 3000-6000 calories or more per day, that translates to a pretty broad allowance to include sweet things. For example, my family still talks about the time that my triathlon coach, a professional triathlete, polished off a club-sized container of chocolate biscotti in the days leading up to Ironman Florida. 

Eating enough carbohydrates takes some creativity, and chocolate biscotti can be one of the many ways to assist with an effective carbohydrate load. Those biscotti likely helped my coach top up his glycogen stores to finish a full ironman triathlon in around 9 hours on a really tough, windy day in Florida. 

For other athletes who may have a smaller calorie requirement, 5-10% of total calories from sugar still leaves room for 25-50 grams of added sugar per day. So maybe not an entire box of biscotti, but plenty of room for dessert.

 

How often can I include sweet treats?

Like most things in nutrition, I believe this is personal and depends on you, your training, and your health goals. Don’t look to influencers or trendy diets that cut or limit sugar entirely as the holy grail to health. 

Sugar is just a nutrient, not a moral issue. My professional and personal experience has shown me time and time again that total exclusion of a food or nutrient is not sustainable. Restriction typically makes sweet things much more desirable, and can potentially lead to over-consuming or binging sweet foods, which doesn’t feel great.

Some clients find that including a sweet treat daily is the key to satisfying their sweet tooth and keeping the feeling of restriction at bay. Others feel better only having sweet treats a few times per week, and that is okay, too. 

A goal of my work with clients is to personalize their plans so that they perform well as athletes and enjoy what they are eating. 

 

5 Favorite Sweet Treats for Athletes

Since so many athletes are busy and juggling 85 things, it can sometimes be fun to have sweet treats do double duty. Having a sweet treat that can double as a pre-workout is great, or maybe the sweet treat is a motivator to meet another health goal, like including more fruit, fiber, or protein. The following are 5 of my current favorite sweet treats for athletes that hit that sweet spot and help your performance, as an athlete.

 

Peanut Butter Yogurt Cup with Magic Shell Topping

This recipe from Eating Well has been my favorite sweet treat lately! It is super easy to prepare, and helps me meet my protein goals as an athlete, with 16 grams of protein per serving. The crunchy chocolate “shell” provides a really fun crunch and elevates this yogurt bowl to full-on treat status.

PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPHER: RACHEL MAREK, FOOD STYLIST: LAUREN MCANELLY, PROP STYLIST: GABRIEL GRECO

 

Tru Fru Chocolate Covered Frozen Fruit

I had the pleasure of learning about Tru Fru at a food show a few years ago. What a smart invention! 

These hyper-chilled raspberries are double-dipped in white and dark chocolate and found in the frozen fruit section of your grocery store. The raspberries are my favorite, but they also have strawberries, cherries, bananas, pineapple, and blueberries. 

I aim to have my athletic clients include 2-3 servings of fruit per day to get in essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, but many of my athletes struggle to meet this goal. Tru Fru can be a motivator to hit those fruit targets, and do double duty as a scrumptious sweet treat.

 

 Healthy Chocolate Mousse from Chocolate Covered Katie 

Traditional chocolate mousse is a fairly time-consuming dessert for a weeknight. This easy recipe from healthy dessert goddess, Chocolate Covered Katie, has been a favorite sweet treat of mine for over a decade. I love that it is really easy to put together, offers 7 grams of soy protein for added recovery benefits, and the sweetness can be varied to meet your individual needs.

 

Carrot Cake Bread from The Recipe Critic 

My husband and I recently visited some friends, and not only did they open up their lovely home to us, but they baked this beautiful quick bread as part of a thoughtful and delicious breakfast. I absolutely loved it and have added it to my sweet treat routine. Each slice has about 60 grams of carbohydrates, perfect for pre-workout, but so scrumptious it’s a great dessert anytime. 

 

Banana Oatmeal Protein Breakfast Cookies by Hannah Magee, RD

As a relatively new empty nester, I’m finding I don’t bake cookies like I used to when I had kids at home. But a batch of these banana oatmeal protein cookies is a breeze to make, and freezes really well. They are easy to grab for quick pre-workout fuel or a sweet treat anytime of day. 

The added nutritional benefits of oats, hemp hearts, and protein powder help to provide sustained energy and assist with meeting my protein needs.

Looking back, I realize a lot of my suggestions have chocolate in this list. While I have no intention of apologizing for that (ha!), I’ll also share that these sweet treat options can be made with any of your favorite mix-ins, like nuts or dried fruit, if you are not as fond of chocolate as I am.

Is there a time of day that is best to include a sweet treat?

When we are thinking about our overall health, in combination with our performance as athletes, I think there are three pretty good answers to this question.

Pre-workout

When fueling up before a workout, it’s often a great practice to include fast-acting, quickly-digested carbohydrates (or sugar) prior to our sessions. Our bodies rely on carbohydrates to fuel these activities, and consuming about 30-60 grams of carbohydrate prior to a workout will give us the available energy we need to perform our best.

Many of my athletes find this is a great time to include something sweet that feels good on their stomachs. A pack of gummy snacks, some graham crackers with nut butter, an UncrustablesⓇ sandwich, or Pop-TartsⓇ can provide 30-60 grams of carbohydrate and satisfy a sweet tooth at the same time. 

For more ideas about pre-workout fueling, check out my post on the best pre-workout snack bars for athletes.

After a meal

Many times, we get the craving for a sweet treat at the end of a meal. From a metabolic perspective, this is one of the better times to include a sweet treat. Typically, the protein, fiber, and fat that are in our main meals provide a good base for blood sugar stabilization. 

What this means is that by including a sweet at the end of our meals, we will not have the same spike in our blood sugar as we would if we consumed a sweet treat while very hungry, on an empty stomach. I think we’ve maybe all had that icky feeling of a sugar rush, followed by a crash, when we eat something very sweet in isolation.

Just for pleasure

There is certainly room in our lives to include sweet treats just for pleasure, meaning not before a workout and not paired with a more complete meal. The occasional bakery run, celebratory birthday cake, or ice cream trip can allow us to enjoy freedom around food.

Takeaways on Sweets

My work with athletes has shown me that so many of us want to eat as well as we can to perform and recover well. But eating for sports performance does not mean that we have to be so rigid around food that we don’t have room for life’s sweet treats.

Quick recap: 

• Most major health organizations are recommending that we limit the amount of added sugar in our diets to 5-10% of total calories.
• Many athletes have high caloric requirements.
• There is room in any well-balanced sports diet to include sweet treats in moderation.
• Sweet treats can be a fun way to incorporate more carbohydrates for fueling, or more protein for recovering.
• Adding a sweet treat after a meal will have less impact on your blood sugar.
• Experiencing freedom around food means that a spontaneous (or planned) sweet treat is not off limits, and all desserts don’t need to be “healthy.”

I know that just reading about a goal and putting it into action can be more challenging than you’d guess. If you’d like support with your fueling, I’d love to help you. 

I am accepting new sports nutrition clients in both Pennsylvania and Maryland. Contact me to set up an appointment so we can work together toward your strongest, most nourished self this year while including sweet treats you will love! 

P.S. Your insurance may fully cover the cost of your visit – ask me for more details.