How to fit in holiday sweets when you have diabetes

Holidays and other special occasions can be tough for diabetics when it comes to desserts. Whether it is cake for a birthday, pie for Thanksgiving, or ice cream on the Fourth of July, sweets are everywhere.
Holidays are a special occasion, so if you’d like to enjoy a small serving of your favorite dessert, you can.
It's important to remember that most sweets have a lot of carbohydrate in a small portion, so you’ll want to keep portion sizes small. You can work a sweet treat into your meal plan by substituting a small portion of dessert for other carbohydrate already in your meal plan. For example, if you want a small serving of pumpkin pie, then pass on eating a dinner roll or sweet potatoes during the main course.
Revising recipesThere are ways to revise many dessert recipes so they are healthier and still great tasting. Many times, you can replace up to half of the sugar in a recipe with a sugar substitute. You can also try cutting down on sugar and increasing the use of cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and other sweet-tasting spices and flavorings.
Replace half the fat in your recipe with applesauce or baby-food prunes when making chocolate brownies, cakes, or cookies. These tricks will help you make your recipes a little bit healthier. However, you still must keep the portion small. Also, keep in mind that replacing fat with fruit ingredients increases the carbohydrate content.
Search for healthier versions of recipes using the American Diabetes Association's Recipes for Healthy Living resource (diabetes.org/mfa-recipes). When searching other places for recipes, pick recipes that give you the serving size and the amount of carbohydrate.
Source: American Diabetes Association: diabetes.org