Kick Sugar While Keeping It Sweet

Tis the season for all things sweet. We love the occasional sweet treat but hate the blood sugar roller coaster it can send you + your littles on.

We must remember this season and every season ;) that our bodies are incredible machines that are innately and continually monitoring the amount of glucose in our bloodstream. Too much glucose along with too little glucose releases hormones that bring the bodies blood sugar levels back into balance or 'normal'. When your child consumes a large amount of glucose (yes this can come from tropical fruits, too many starchy carbs and most of all processed sugars) their body signals the pancreas to produce insulin which is the key that transfers the glucose out of the blood stream and into the bodies cells. This becomes a problem when we are continually inoculating our bodies with sugar. Creating 'sugar highs and lows' puts stress on our pancreas, adrenals and eventually wrecks havoc on our bodies.

So, as a mom how do you let your littles enjoy sweet treats on the occasion without putting them on a blood sugar roller coaster?! You make sure they are eating a quality protein + fat at each meal and reward their 'healthy' eating with an 'upgraded' treat. For us this means treats that are ideally sweetened without the use of refined sugar. Instead choose those with honey, maple syrup, fruit juice, coconut sugar or better stevia + lakanto. We love the last two as they do not spike blood sugar at all.

Here is a round up of some sweets we love and are just in time for the holidays :)

* Hu Chocolate - this chocolate is fair trade + organic and is naturally sweetened with coconut sugar. They also taste insane and are our absolutely Whit's favorite 'upgraded' treat. The gems are the perfect size for your littles to not overindulge - wait, maybe that's for you ;)

* JoJos - these bars have no added sugar (sweetened with stevia), very high in fat (15g) and will leave you satisfied for hours, they are also excellent frozen.

* Evolved Classic Coconut Butter Cups - Organic, high in quality fats from coconut + cacao butter, sweetened with coconut sugar :)

* Lily's Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups - Dani's personal favorite :) all of Lily's products are sweetened with stevia so do not spike your blood sugar at all.

* Mavuno Harvest Fruit Chews - Love these because the only ingredients are dried fruits and they are 100% organic, that said they are high in naturally occurring sugars so we suggest splitting the bag between two littles.

*Solely Fruit Bars - Organic dried fruit bars with no added sugar and drizzled with cacao! The perfect combo of fruit + chocolate.

*Chewy Banana Bites - Organic + just dried bananas. Kids love these and we love that you can monitor the amount you're giving to keep the sugar intake (yes even natural occurring) down.

Most of these treats can be purchased through our favorite online grocery store Thrive Market, use this link for 25% off your first order!

Xo Dani and Whitney