8 Low Sugar Snacks that Still Satisfy Your Cravings

In today's marketplace there are so many low sugar snacks that never make it into the spotlight. Instead, you see sugar-filled snacks lining the breakroom at work, decadent flavors in your refrigerator that make you feel guilty about enjoying, and pleasurable snacks that threaten to push you off track from even simple diets.

Sugar can keep you stuck, keeping you from reaching your goals, feeling frustrated with the restricted foods. There's nothing worse in a diet than feeling like certain foods are forbidden.

Why is satisfying your craving for sweets so hard, and why do you crave these sweets so much?

In this article, the team at Youtopia takes a hard look at how your body reacts to sugars and what makes your sweet tooth so convincing.

Lastly, we dive into 8 low sugar snacks that are certain to satisfy your cravings, because we believe that snacking doesn’t have to be boring, and you shouldn’t have to give up flavorful snacks and delicious textures to stick to any diet.

Cravings can tell you a lot about what’s happening inside your body.

It's important to listen to your cravings, but sometimes our taste buds lead us astray, persuading us to indulge in things we know we shouldn't have. Your taste buds will crave sugar, fast food, and any number of other diet-wrecking foods.  

Fortunately, science has given us the benefit of being able to solve our cravings by identifying what our taste buds might be craving and translating that into a real chemical compound.

If you’re craving sugar, your sweet tooth might be trying to tell you something else entirely. A lack of calcium, zinc, chromium, and magnesium can all create an imbalance in your body that triggers the ‘need’ for sugar. (1)

“Without sufficient consumption, absorption, and storage of these minerals, you might be experiencing abnormal reactions to the thought, sight, or smell of something sweet.”

Laura Kunces, Ph.D., RD

• Of course, there are several reasons why you may be craving sugar, and it doesn't always involve the body needing another type of mineral instead. Sometimes, sugar cravings begin in the brain.
•  

For example, you are more likely to crave sugar if you're stressed. Your body uses up its reserves when your stress levels are in overdrive and alters the levels of other chemicals, like glucose, within your body that helps trigger sweet cravings.

Sugar also naturally helps boost the happy chemicals in your brain, regulating mood, appetite, and memory, which makes it addictive. If you are just starting to regulate how much sugar you eat in your diet, you might be experiencing withdrawals of these chemicals, causing your brain to naturally crave more.

Don’t worry, as these cravings will lessen in the next few days. Of course, there are ways you can mitigate your sweet tooth even while reducing the amount of sugar you take in.

At Youtopia, we believe in satisfying these cravings, keeping your body fueled, and helping you feel like you’re on top of the world. With the right snacks and maintaining a good relationship with your snacking habits, you'll feel like a superhero.

There are several ways you can handle a sugar craving! But first, it's important to identify why you're craving sweets. Is it habit, texture, or hunger?

Your body knows when you're hungry before you feel hungry, and your body knows that sugar gives you near-immediate energy, making it a perfect solution to the body’s energy loss problem. Of course, it is not the perfect solution for your figure (unless you're refueling before or during a hard workout), but then again, your taste buds don’t have to worry about that. (2)

“The body knows that glucose is the best hit for energy, so we tend to crave it when we’re hungry.”

Kristin Koskinen, RDN

If you live a rather sedentary life, chances are you don’t need the extra energy that’s packed into a candy bar. That spike in glucose, or sugars in your body, won’t help you fend off wild animals or train for peak efficiency.

Your body does need sugar to survive and perform at its best, but there is often too much sugar and unnecessary junk products in popular sweet treats. This leads to our bodies storing the excess energy for later – just in case we need to fend off, ahem, a bear – and this turns into the need to visit the gym, later.

You may also be used to eating sugar out of habit. The body craves what it is used to, and if that something is sugar, of course, you are going to crave sugar! Likewise, there is something inherently comforting about the act of eating, as simple as it is. As people, we take comfort in this simple pleasure, providing nutrition to our bodies and sharing an experience with the people around us.

No one wants to feel guilty about eating something pleasurable, and you certainly shouldn’t feel guilty about sharing a snack with a friend or enjoying time to yourself with a good book and a low sugar snack.

A healthy relationship with your snacks is the best gift you can give yourself, and it will help improve the quality of your experiences around snack time as well.

Then, sometimes, it is all about texture. Texture is the real spice of life, changing something from simply good to absolutely delightful. Often, when you are craving a snack, you are craving the texture that comes with this snack, not just the sweetness.

Think about it: if you are craving a delicious candy bar, you’re not just craving sugar, otherwise, you could go to the kitchen and get a spoonful of sugar and be completely satisfied with your ‘snack’. You also want the texture that comes with the candy bar, the snap that comes with each bite, or the crunch of nougat mixed in with the smooth candy.

Identifying which craving you have for sweetness is key to figuring out what you want out of a snack. If you’re hungry, push aside the cravings for something sweet and have a small, healthy meal instead.

If you are in the mood to snack for the sake of snacking, you have a wide range of healthy snacks to choose from. Self-control does not start in the pantry saying you won’t eat the potato chips you bought; self-control starts at the grocery store, purchasing the package of nuts instead of the package of oily chips.

The textured aspect of snacking is a different beast. Luckily, there is a wide range of healthy snacks that mimic our favorite junk foods and candies. If you have identified that you are in the mood for a particular texture, then you have already won half the battle.

The other half of the battle is finding an alternative texture. For example, if you are craving nougat in a delicious chocolatey glaze, try substituting it with unflavored oatmeal with a little bit of granola and cocoa powder mixed in.

Talking about sweet cravings has us saying “YUM!” already, thinking about all the different snack possibilities. Unfortunately, those snacks are filled to the brim with sugar.

If you take a look at the nutrition label on some of your favorite snacks, you would be shocked to see some of the sugar amounts that they contain per serving, and here’s a real problem: one candy bar might be up to three servings! Who eats a third of their candy bar?!

Almost everything that we eat has some form of sugar, and the fact is, our bodies need it to survive and function at peak performance.

Instead of trying to look for snacks without any sugar content, living a sugar-free lifestyle, it’s important to find low sugar snacks that are filled with natural sugars, and low to no added sugars.  

So, the question turns to: what is a low sugar snack that can satisfy your sweet tooth?

Here at Youtopia Snacks, we believe in the power that real flavor and real nutrition can provide. Just because you are trying to be better about your diet doesn’t mean you have to eat drab, tasteless snacks.

It's happened to the best of us. You succumb to your sweet tooth, give into the cravings, and ate something decadently sweet and satisfying. Now, what do you do?

You might be reeling from your decision, feeling guilty about your choice. After all, they aren’t called “guilty pleasures” for nothing. The important thing is to realize that it is okay.

Sometimes you give in to cravings because it's the convenient option. Junk food is made widely available in break rooms, corner stores, and supermarkets. These foods are usually inexpensive and ready to eat, making them convenient if you're in a hurry.

Other times, these cravings come out of nowhere and you make a conscious decision to break your diet and give in to your sweet tooth’s demands. This is okay, too.

The important thing to remember when you give in to sweet cravings is that it’s not the end of the world, and you don’t have to feel guilty.

You don’t have to beat yourself up over a decision to eat something sweet, and you certainly don’t have to throw away the rest of your diet because of it. Keep working on your diet but be sure to keep a couple of low sugar snacks on hand to help satisfy your sweet tooth. It sounds surprising but keeping something sweet on hand can reduce how often you feel the need for a craving binge. If you are feeling snacky, have a snack! Just try to make healthier choices about which snack you pull out of the pantry.

The worst thing about diets, whether they are strict or not, is making yourself feel like certain foods are forbidden. Keeping cravings under wraps doesn’t mean you can never have another sugary snack again – it just means you are working towards making healthier choices, buying healthier snacks, and maybe packing a lunch instead of getting it out of the vending machine at work.

The low sugar snacks listed in this article will help you keep the cravings at bay and keep your taste buds satisfied. With these low sugar snacks, you will get all the pleasure and none of the guilt. Best of all, these snacks are much more portable, making them excellent choices on-the-go.

Many low sugar snacks that came out in the early days of the “healthy snacking” trend relied on chemicals to provide a sweet taste without the added sugar. This gave many healthy snacks a bad name as people tried these snacks and were left with a bad taste in their mouths.

Today's healthy snacks are a different story! Give them a try and you may even find that, once you make the switch, you will start to prefer healthy snacks over junk food!

We know low sugar snacks don't always sound appetizing when compared to that sugar-filled, chocolate-covered snickers. Healthy snacking does not have to be a bad experience, and low sugar snacks can be just as satisfying as their full-sugar counterparts. It might not seem like a likely scenario at first, but it will make sense once you try some of these snacks on our favorites list.

Just because you are switching to low sugar snacks does not mean you have to give up chocolate, rich flavors, and perfect crunch of something crispy.

We've taken the time to choose these 8 healthy, low sugar snacks from a variety of brands with a variety of flavors and textures to ensure you get the most out of your snacking experience. All these snacks are small and portable, making them easy and convenient for your on-th-go lifestyle!

Choose a favorite flavor and texture below and take your first steps into the world of delicious low sugar snacks: