NEW YORK TIMES 7-DAY SUGAR CHALLENGE: DAY 7

The New York Times issued a 7-Day Sugar Challenge and I’m thrilled to participate! Each day I’ll share a tip and an easy recipe from my new book, Half the Sugar, All the Love, to get you started on your way to cooking with less added sugar. If you’ve already got a copy of Half the Sugar, All the Love, you’re ahead of the game! If not, grab your copy HERE.

With 60 to 63 percent cacao, bittersweet chocolate lends a wonderful richness and depth of flavor to recipes with less sugar than its semisweet counterpart. It’s an easy swap. This also highlights an important point: chocolate can definitely be part of your low sugar cooking strategy. Evidence-based scientific studies show that a moderate approach to your diet, focused on increasing fruits and vegetables and keeping added sugar, saturated fats, and sodium in check, results in the best health outcomes. It’s about knowing how much added sugar is in your food and then making a few simple changes to reduce the amount of added sugar (without going to the unnecessary extreme of eliminating it altogether).

Day 7: A Chocolate Reward

For Day 7 of The New York Times 7-Day Sugar Challenge, your goal is to savor a piece of chocolate! These decadent Double Chocolate Brownies from Half the Sugar, All the Love are a delicious place to start. Sweet potato and almond butter are the secret ingredients in this recipe. They lend natural sweetness, along with fiber from the sweet potato, to deliver a brownie that’s 2/3 less added sugar than a boxed brownie mix. Get the recipe here.

Half the Sugar, All the Love is packed with over 100 recipes to enjoy your favorite foods in a healthier way. The secret is using fiber-rich fruits and vegetables to sweeten instead of added sugar. It’s available wherever books are sold.