How often do you or your family eat sweets?

[Anonymous]

Chocolate, candy, cakes, chips, ice cream, cookies etc

Do you go all in once a month? Or have you mastered whatever the f ”moderation” means.

I feel like most people can eat a piece of chocolate and stop. Some need to eat the entire box.
What’s the healthy way to do it?

[Anonymous]

Every day. My family is active, healthy, and fit. We don't do disordered eating at our house.

[Anonymous]

Dessert is available in some form nearly every evening. We keep cookies & ice cream stocked, and this time of year we also have leftover Halloween candy and the remnants of last week's birthday cake. If anyone wants something sweet after eating dinner, they can have it. One of the kids takes something most nights, the other one chooses a sweet maybe 3-4 nights a week - says he's full the other nights. DH eats more sweets after dinner than I do, but I often have something sweet in the afternoon at work - probably a few times a week.

When the kids were young, we had a rule that they could only get dessert if they ate a good dinner (decent portion of healthy stuff, and at least try everything we set out unless it was a long-standing known dislike). Now that they are teens, we don't really have to enforce that anymore. They eat when they're hungry, have a decent balanced diet, and don't over-indulge on sweet stuff.

[Anonymous]

Op here, wow that sounds ideal guys!

But what do your serving sizes look like? 1 cookie 2,3? One ice cream bar?

I clearly have a restrictive mentality unfortunately, so i really want to learn from you guys

[Anonymous]

We have dessert 6 out of 7 nights a week. Usually ice cream or homemade cookies. Sometimes I make a pie or a cake.

[Anonymous]

My daughter can have one treat food (which really means something sweet) per day. Every day. If she goes to a birthday party or it’s a holiday or something, she can have more.

[Anonymous]

I have teens at my house and we don't serve dessert at the house with dinner unless it's really an unusual thing - like a birthday or I baked a pie last week because we had too many apples.

But there is almost always ice cream and right now a lot of candy. My almost 18 year old eats leftover halloween candy pretty much every night - but probably just a few pieces. If it's around, they sometimes eat it and something they don't.

[Anonymous]

My kids can have a dessert after dinner every night if they want. DH and I rarely partake, just not interested unless it's a special baked good or something.

[Anonymous]

Everyday. No one in our house has any weight issues. Also we are all active and on a sports team or exercise.

[Anonymous]

Daily. Like PP, we eat a varied and nutritious diet and have no problem adding cake or cookies or some other sweet into the mix. We're also very active -- we walk most places and do lots of sports and activities on the weekends.

Also, I don't think of most of the sweets we eat as "bad" for you. We eat a lot of baked goods, which in addition to sugar have protein and fat (which yes, you need). Many also have fruits and nuts in them, which are also beneficial. A slice of pear tart or a piece of chocolate raspberry cake is not a meal, but it's not a disaster either. You just need to make sure you get other stuff you need and don't over do it. I go through phases where I will have a pastry with breakfast every morning and it's nice because I find it very filling and satisfying and it's also just something to look forward to first thing. But I'm balancing it out with a smoothie with fruit and protein and usually some kale or spinach mixed in. That's a pretty balanced meal without eating meat (which I try to save for dinners a few nights a week for environmental reasons).

We definitely preach intuitive eating with our kid too and don't deny sweets, but emphasize balance and making sure your body gets the stuff it absolutely needs (protein, vitamin and nutrient rich fruits and veggies, some whole grains, fiber) first. That's why sweets come after a meal. We also try to steer her towards treats that are more filling or might also have nutritious elements -- fruit with whipped cream, a protein rich bread or cake, etc. I don't personally like candy much and we don't tend to keep it around the house often because it's so unsatisfying. Sometimes we'll get some dark chocolate peanut butter cups at Tis or a good quality chocolate bar, but otherwise I'd rather bake a cake or something and have that to nibble on for a few days. I actually kind of loathe Halloween because we wind up with so much candy in the house and none of us really likes it that much.

[Anonymous]

Every day. At our house food is food and you can help yourself.

[Anonymous]

Every day, though I personally cut back my consumption about a year ago. My kids are older now and only 1 is left at home. I don’t manage his diet. If I think he is eating too much junk, I quietly cut back at the grocery store or make some modifications to that week’s meals that make them healthier. Our kids always had sweets/treats. We tried to model moderation when our kids were young so they would have healthy attitudes towards food and weight. Our kids were healthy and active and I felt like 80-90% of their calories were healthy and unprocessed so there was room for allowing them treats without a lot of handwringing. Making foods bad or off-limits is a recipe for disaster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here, wow that sounds ideal guys!

But what do your serving sizes look like? 1 cookie 2,3? One ice cream bar?

I clearly have a restrictive mentality unfortunately, so i really want to learn from you guys

PP just before this post. 2-3 scoops of ice cream, or a Haagen Daz bar, or 3-4 cookies. I do find it helps to serve out a reasonable serving, then put the rest of the container away before eating. If the open box of cookies sits in the middle of the table, we'll keep eating them. It doesn't feel restrictive, but it does help train us to recognize when we've had enough and be mindful of how much we're eating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every day. My family is active, healthy, and fit. We don't do disordered eating at our house.

+1
And it’s the kids that have strict rules and restrictions at their homes who come to ours and search out sweets and have zero self control. I just cleaned out the pantry and tossed tons of Easter candy. My kids have unlimited access so actually rarely eat sweet stuff.

[Anonymous]

Pretty much every day. We also eat vegetables daily, fruit, and get lots of exercise. DD is 10 now and usually gets dessert after dinner. She has started eating Nutella with a banana as a snack and Nutella is really a dessert food, oh well.