The least unhealthy holiday desserts

Holiday desserts are supposed to be delectable. The sweet, rich, creamy, or crunchy treats melt in your mouth and feel like a luxurious gift with every bite. Alas, as we all know, such extravagance can boost your weight, blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol.

How do you cope with those risks when you're staring at dense chocolate cake, crème brûl'e, and other luscious desserts at the holiday buffet? Just learn to spot options that are at least a little healthier than others.

So good, yet so bad

Four culprits make holiday desserts unhealthy:

Saturated fat. These fats — such as palm or coconut oil, butter, cream, or cream cheese — give desserts their rich textures. But fats have twice as many calories (9 calories per gram) as carbohydrates (4 calories per gram), which can boost your calorie intake quickly. And regularly consuming excessive amounts of saturated fat (more than 10% of your daily calories) might raise "bad" LDL cholesterol and increase inflammation in your body.

Added sugar. Sugar puts the sweet in our treats. It doesn't matter if a dessert has white or brown sugar, maple syrup, honey, molasses, agave, or corn syrup; all added sugars are digested quickly and rapidly absorbed, which sends blood sugar levels soaring.

Refined carbohydrates. Refined grains have been stripped of their healthy parts. When ground, they become a powdery flour that makes soft cakes or cookies and tender pie crusts. Unfortunately, the body quickly breaks down refined grains into sugars that are easily digested, rapidly elevating your blood sugar.

Calories. People joke that desserts are calorie-free during the holidays, but they definitely are not. For example, a large cookie or a slice of pecan pie gives you 500 calories—the same amount in a grilled salmon dinner with some asparagus and brown rice, plus a cup of strawberries. If you eat a couple of large cookies or get an extra-large slice of pie, you can easily scarf down 1,000 or more calories.

Navigating the options

Except for plain fruit, you're unlikely to find extremely healthy holiday desserts. Try not to worry about that too much. "Don't deprive yourself. Holidays are a time of celebration. They help make life worth living when we get to enjoy these special occasions and foods we love," says Heather Bell-Temin, a senior nutritionist at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital.

But some dessert options are a little healthier than others. Bell-Temin suggests the following.

Chocolate-covered fruit. Chocolate-dipped strawberries, bananas, and other fruits are common holiday treats. Fruit has fiber and is digested more slowly than sugar and refined grains, helping to keep blood sugar from spiking. Go for fruit dipped in dark (not milk) chocolate: dark chocolate is associated with heart and brain health benefits.

Fruit crisps or crumbles. Baked fruit desserts with granola or oat toppings give you a double dose of fiber (both fruit and whole grains) to keep sugar from being absorbed too quickly.

Fruit or vegetable breads. Banana, pumpkin, or zucchini bread usually has less fat and sugar compared to cakes and pastries, thanks to the sweetness and texture of the fruit or vegetable in the recipe.

Fruit trifles. These layered desserts consist of cake, fruit, and creamy filling, such as pudding. Try to get more fruit in your dish than cake or creamy filling.

Dark chocolate bark. This mixture of dark chocolate and dried fruits and nuts has plenty of sugar, but it's tempered by the fiber in the fruit and nuts to burn more slowly, and has the benefits of dark chocolate.

Meringue cookies. Meringue is a light, airy confection made of sugar and whipped egg whites. Egg whites are lower in saturated fat than egg yolks.

Modified cookies. If your host has made oatmeal or peanut butter cookies with healthy unsaturated fats (such as canola, safflower, or avocado oil) and reduced amounts of sugar, these would be better options than cookies, cakes, or pies made with butter or saturated fat–rich oils.

Other considerations

While some dessert options are less unhealthy than others, they can still have high amounts of saturated fat, sugar, carbs, and calories. So decide in advance what you'll allow yourself for dessert. "Be on the lookout for healthier options, and if your options are only the extremely unhealthy types of desserts, make the portion size small," Bell-Temin says. Slowly savoring a small portion of a delicious but unhealthy dessert can give you as much pleasure as quickly gobbling up a large portion, and it's unlikely to hurt your health.

Image: © Maryna Terletska /Getty Images