Kids and Sugar Craving

[Farmwife]

So this thread was spurred on by crohnsinct :tongue:

Now that's Grace is back on food, were finally free to think about a better diet.
We've done clean eating but I have to admit with trying to keep Grace's calories/ weight up that we do have a few sweets in are house.


What have you done to help your kids to get over the sugar craving?

 

[Lady Organic]

there are plenty of healthy dessert recipes so easy to make in the raw food community. Most desserts will be made out of fresh dattes and they are pure joy, no sugar at all.

the easiest dessert I can think about making is:

Banana ice cream:

Froze cut pieces of 1 or 2 full bananas, then let stand for 20 minutes and then Mix into food processor, thats it! super tasty!!! On top of it, banana is high in prebiotics, so really great for us. i may add that brown spots on banana peal shows increased natural sweets, so they are best used at this late stage for recipes.

you can add simply raw cacao powder for chocolate taste or any other interesting ingredients such as vanilla extract, dried (not roasted) coconut flakes, cinnamon powder (1/8 tea s), a tea s of lemon juice, nuts, etc, the possibility are endless. this preparation makes also great puddings when its not so frozen.


another interesting and easy desert is a Mix of dattes, coconut flakes and different soaked nuts all mixed into food processor again and then confectionnated into small balls. another pure delicious sweet healthy snack.

 

[Pilgrim]

We make our own yogurt (24 hour SCD recipe) and serve it with a little drizzled honey and some fruit. She loves this.

FW, is her G-tube gone? Did I miss that?

 

[crohnsinct]

Good for you for trying to keep it clean.

If you are trying to keep her weight and calories up, sweets are not the way you want to do it. A better way is to concentrate on healthy fats. Nuts and seeds (if she can have them...if not blend into butters etc), avocado, drizzle olive oil over her lightly steamed veggies. There has been quite a bit of discussion here about weight issues and how to keep it up. Poke around there for ideas.

Processed sugar is bad for inflammation. That includes white flour. As a matter of fact it causes inflammation. In what I have read, many studies eliminate sugar in arthritic patients diet because it is so inflammatory. Psoriasis also.

Sugar has been proven to be just as addictive as drugs. I should know. I used to have to have dessert after breakfast, lunch and dinner! You probably don't want to feed a sugar craving with processed sugar in treats.

Off my soapbox...

Treats? Fruit is very sweet and an excellent fix for a "sugar" craving. We also make smoothies...an easy go to...half cup blueberries, cup of strawberries, a banana, tablespoon of chia seeds (for protein and goof fat), and a healthy handful of spinach. Blend! My girl LOVE this treat and I love it because you can hide greens in it. You can pretty much make up any concoction of fruit you want and throw greens in and they won't taste it. Ya know..I just thought of something...you could probably throw some avocado in there also to add to the creaminess and up the calories...going to try that today! Oops...no I'm not O is prepping and T is still 90%EEN. Tomorrow!

We also have a great Muesli recipe. We chop up apples drizzle some almond milk on it and Yummy treat. Here is the recipe:

1 cup raw pecans
1/4 cup chia seeds
2 cups dried apricots
1 cup pitted dates
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon coconut oil (healthy fat)
1 cup oats

In food processor combine all the ingredients except the oats and pulse for about 2 minutes. Put it in a zip loc with the oats and shake it up.

We also do the fruit ice cream mentioned above.

Try some two ingredient cookies. A popular one is 2 bananas and 1 cup of oats. Mash bananas mix in oats drop on cookie sheet and bake 12 minutes at 350. You can do the same thing with pumpkin...1 cup of pumpkin and lots of pumpkin spices. In each you can put the mix ins of your choice. If you are trying to watch the sugar maybe just a few chocolate chips. If we put choc chips in anything we use the mini's. A little goes a long way.

That should get you started. There are lots more but half the fun is experimenting so I won't ruin it for you.

 

[lenny]

Healthy Chia banana chocolate pudding.

 

[Farmwife]

Thanks everyone. I love the snacky ideas. Grace loves her snacks and only eats about a half cup at a time but it seems she does this about every hour. Hopefully once we build the diet, she will go back to eating meals.

pilgrim,
She still has her g-tube and if the GI has her way it will stay for a long while.
Grace had issues with her stomach when it flares. G-tube saved us many hospital trips in the past

 

[Pilgrim]

H is the same way. She eats small amounts throughout the day. She also likes sliced apples raw (works for her) and a little cheese and crackers. We are pretty "clean" with our diet but she tends to have very specific items that she feels comfortable eating. I haven't pushed her to change much because I know that there are things she used to love which she just won't eat now - she says they "make her tummy hurt". She has not gone back to eating a full meal yet.
I think she's gaining well because of the 50% or more EN she drinks. All of that delicious corn syrup!
So, I'm not much help but if you find good food that she loves, please share with us what has worked!