Satisfying a sweet tooth

By Karen McNew
WSLS10 Anchor
Published: July 10, 2008

Jay and I were joking earlier at 5:30pm about the calories and fat in ice cream… Dawn had a story about which ones tested best for flavor and cost… most people who know me… know that I run a lot… and that I limit the amount of sugar I eat… back in the day on a road trip I would stock up on sugary treats.. laffy taffy… suckers… giant sweet tarts… jolly ranchers… these candies were probably pretty bad for my teeth… and definitely not good for the waistline…

I did a story several years ago about a book called “Lick the Sugar Habit” as I was doing the story I remember thinking… I could not live without sugar… now I seem to do just fine without it and I feel better for it…

I don’t completely deny myself sugary treats… every now and then I splurge a little… normally on the weekends… and when I splurge the food item has to earn its way into my calorie diary… On Monday of this week for my birthday and another co-worker’s birthday someone made a homemade peanut butter cheese cake with chocolate crust.. I ate a piece and it was amazing… but store bought random cookies don’t get a second look… this brings me back to the ice cream… sometimes I look at it like this… no matter what you do to ice cream it is not going to be part of a major food group… never will ice cream be considered as healthy as fresh fruits or vegetables… so if I am going to have a little… emphasis on little.. then I might as well have what I really like… portion control is often half the battle for me…

My favorite new ice cream finds are Mini Dove Chocolate ice cream bars that are only 60 calories per individually wrapped piece.. they come in three flavors… cherry, vanilla and chocolate… if I feel like I want something sweet.. one of those will do for me… feeling satisfied with food is something that I have learned takes patience (eat slowly) portion control (don’t go back for seconds unless you are really still hungry) and exercise (on days when I work out I am more likely to treat food as fuel as opposed to just sustenance.