Did you know that having a dessert or sweet treat every once in a while actually increases your chances to lose weight successfully? Why? Because if you allow yourself this bit of luxury you can’t do without, you are much less likely to cheat on your diet and then exaggerate it. After all, if you can eat what you want, there’s no need for cheating.

The secret of enjoying desserts when you want to lose weight is to choose low calorie desserts. And fortunately, with some simple tricks you can create low calorie desserts that don’t really taste like boring low calorie food.

There are four ways of reducing calories in your dessert:

• reducing the amount of fat
• reducing the amount of sugar
• reducing the amount of other simple carbohydrates
• reducing portion sizes

Reducing fat
Most fat in your desserts comes in form of butter or dairy products like cream, milk, cream cheese and mascarpone. You can reduce fat very easily without losing much taste.

• Replace butter with a good margarine. That’s not only less fat but also healthier fat. In many cake or muffin recipes you could even use canola oil instead.
• If cream is not used beaten, you can use butter milk or coconut milk instead. They contain much less fat and also taste great.
• Use low fat milk instead of full cream milk. It works just as well and you will barely notice the difference. Plus, you cut calories coming from milk to about one third. Buttermilk can replace milk in shakes and smoothies.
• Use low fat smooth cottage cheese or ricotta in place of cream cheese or mascarpone. Your dessert will have significantly less calories and also be less heavy.
• Buy low fat ice cream. Try to find one that is not too high in sugar. Alternately, you can make your own ice cream with low fat milk and artificial sweeteners.

Reducing sugar
This is a bit more tricky but still possible. In many recipes you can simply reduce the amount of sugar. If you then feel it’s not sweet enough, you have several options:

• You can use artificial sweeteners like Splenda or Aspartame. They are very sweet (so a little will do) but contain almost no calories.
• You can also use natural sweeteners like honey, fructose or maple syrup. They contain fewer calories than sugar, and since they are much sweeter you need less. But remember that they still do contain calories. Natural sweeteners are a great option if you just want to sweeten something a little. But if you want to use a large amount, then rather don’t go this route.
• Add naturally sweet foods like fresh or dried fruit to your dessert. This will reduce your need for additional sugar and at the same time provide you with many important vitamins and fiber.

Reducing other simple carbohydrates
Of all carbohydrates, sugar is the one that causes most damage. But there are other simple carbohydrates that have a quite similar effect on our body. Refined products like white flour also contain simple carbohydrates. These are stored as fat when you eat too many of them, so you should reduce these foods as well when you want to lose weight.

The best way to do this is to swap white flour with whole grain flour. You can completely replace it or mix the two, depending on how much you need or want to reduce calories. The good thing about a whole grain muffin is that it also fills you quicker and better than one made of white flour. So you will eat less.

Reducing portion sizes
One of the best and most effective ways of reducing calories is certainly simply eating less. I’m not saying you should have tiny portions. You don’t really need five scoops of ice-cream, two would also do. Rather stick to smaller portions and enjoy them without having to worry too much about the calories.

Chocolate contains caffeine and saturated fats, and these two factors create a reputation as bad for us. Cholesterol levels raise because the fat in cocoa butter, but it also contains phenolen which helps reduces the risk of heart disease.

A cup of regular coffee has more caffeine in than one ounce of chocolate, 150 mg compared to 6 mg. Therefore its far better to give up coffee than it is chocolate.

Chocolate has also found to contain more antioxidants than green tea. The catechins within are powerful in preventing some cancers and heart disease. Chocolate also creates endorphins enable us to become relaxed, allows more oxygen to reach our inner blood supply and can even improve our memory.
Do not be misled, chocolate does have some negative effects but they are outweighed by the positives. Eating chocolate as part of a varied diet where intake is balanced with regular exercise is probably healthy for the heart.

Chocolate also contains a variety of minerals that are essential to good nutrition. These include calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, iron, zinc and copper. Each of these minerals plays important roles in a variety of biological functions, including growth, bone formation, metabolism and oxygen transport within the blood.

If you love chocolate and eat it regularly, the most beneficial types are dark chocolates that contain only natural ingredients and are not overly processed. Just remember, chocolate is high in calories and eating too much can therefore make you fat, increasing your risk of heart disease and over-eating of chocolate can also lead to obesity.