If there’s any holiday that calls for pausing your diet and splurging on indulgent foods, it’s Thanksgiving. Skipping dessert just seems crazy! While it’s not too hard to bounce back from a cheat day, for those with type 2 diabetes, indulging means more than tight pants and a food coma.
Holiday foods high in simple carbohydrates, like apple cake and pumpkin pie, can cause a dangerous blood sugar spike (hyperglycemia), requiring an increased insulin dosage to prevent health consequences like fatigue, headache, and excessive thirst. Frequently relying on extra insulin to correct hyperglycemia can contribute to weight gain and increased insulin resistance—two things that can worsen diabetes.
Thankfully, steering clear of hyperglycemia—while still indulging in Thanksgiving desserts—is totally doable and doesn’t require you to ditch your favorite Turkey Day dishes, says registered dietitian and author of the Diabetes-Friendly Dessert Guide, Lori Zanini, RD.
Staying Healthy On Turkey Day
To keep blood sugar levels even-keeled, fill up on turkey and veggie sides during dinner, and then make smart decisions once the dessert spread comes out. Generally speaking, treats that get their sweetness from fruits or vegetables, like apple or pumpkin, tend to be smart choices, says Zanini, while anything that’s caramelized, browned, or glazed is typically filled with added sugars and should be avoided.
But if you want to be extra-cautious, your best bet is to make a festive dessert that you know is diabetic-friendly—which is where these delicious sweets come in. Thanks to their minimal sugar content and use of alternative flours and healthy fats, these six dietitian-approved Thanksgiving desserts are ideal for people with type 2 diabetes. The best part? The other guests at your table will enjoy them, too. (Psst! For even more healthy holiday ideas, don't miss these 17 diabetes-friendly Thanksgiving recipes.)
Raw Mini Apple Pies
These cute single-serving apple pies courtesy of Brittany fromEating Bird Fooddon’t require any heat. Their raw crusts are made from a simple combination of dates, unsweetened shredded coconut, and unsalted almonds which contribute blood sugar-stabilizing healthy fats and fiber. Even better, the filling gets its sweetness entirely from fiber-rich apples and dates. A touch of cinnamon and nutmeg gives the final product that classic apple pie flavor we all know and love. (See the health benefits of cinnamon here.)
MORE:5 Ways To Sneak More Fiber Into Your Diet
This apple pie smoothie is pure goodness in a glass:
Pumpkin Pie Parfait
Looking for a healthy, holiday-perfect dessert you can make in just 10 minutes? Jen fromLorimer StreetKitchencovers those bases with her vegan pumpkin pie parfait. Rather than store-bought pumpkin pie filling, this dish features plain pumpkin puree sweetened with a couple tablespoons of sugar, which reduces the overall sugar content and allows for customizable sweetness. The layers of crumble are made solely of graham crackers, which is a far safer option for diabetics than a traditional pie-topper made with globs of sugar and butter.
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Vegan Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream
Healthy ice cream is usually thin and icy, but not this recipe by Dana of theMinimalist Baker. Her vegan pumpkin pie "ice cream" gets its creamy texture from raw cashews and pumpkin puree and its pumpkiny flavor from pumpkin pie spice, ground cinnamon, and vanilla extract. And despite the fact that it calls for maple syrup and brown sugar for sweetness, it still contains fewer than 30 grams of carbs per serving‚ which is Zanini’s benchmark for a diabetic-friendly dessert.
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Almond Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies
If your holiday table is already overloaded with pumpkin and apple Thanksgiving dessert recipes, consider shaking things up with these nutty chocolate cookies fromRunning to the Kitchen.With an almond flour and ground flaxseed base, they’re gluten-free and contain just a quarter cup of brown sugar for a dozen—which is practically nothing for a sweet treat. A dollop of melted chocolate mixed with coconut oil fills each cookie’s thumbprint center, which provides the extra wow factor.
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Paleo Pear Apple Pie
Have you ever baked a pie thatmadeits own crust in the oven? No? Lindsay fromCotter Crunchis here to change that. Her “impossible pies”—the latest one being a pear-apple variety perfect for Thanksgiving—feature a custard-like filling of milk and eggs, which allows the pie to develop a sweet caramelized crust while it bakes. The end result is a good option for diabetics because it avoids the high carb content of a traditional crust. Red apple and pear provide sweetness and blood sugar-stabilizing fiber, warding off blood sugar spikes. (Here are 5 must-try gluten-free pie crusts that are better than the real thing.)
MORE:4 Delicious Low-Sugar Desserts
Raw Walnut and Pecan Tartlets
A mixture of nuts and dates gives these tartlets a similar raw base to the mini apple pies from Eating Bird Food. But here, Gina fromRunning to the Kitchenuses pecans and walnuts, which make these just perfect for Thanksgiving. The dates and nuts are blended and formed into small cups, which are frozen and then filled with a mixture of almond and coconut butters or dark chocolate melted with coconut oil. Although the portion size here is small enough to make either option a smart choice for people with diabetes, the nut butter version is lower in overall sugar content.
