Desserts: Should they be really consumed?

If you are one of those who is health conscious or trying to loose weight , the first thing that comes in your mind to cut calories in your diet is “dessert”. This is when the question arises, “Are desserts really important? Should they be consumed? Should they be a part of the daily routine diet or should they be completely eliminated from the daily routine in order to stay healthy?”

When we talk about desserts, we generally relate them to pastries, ice-creams, puddings etc. If this is your definition of dessert, then yes, desserts should be eliminated from your diet in order to remain healthy. The major reason behind this is that they are calorie dense and are loaded with loads of carbohydrates and fats.  This is where we need to know what exactly desserts are? What is the motto behind having them?

The word dessert actually relates to a dish that is served at the end of the meal, which is normally a sweet dish. This word has its origin from the west. Back centuries ago, in the West, desserts were crusties made from raw honeycomb and dried dates. Nutritionally speaking, these foods were a good sources of vitamins and minerals. Also the intake of these foods actually helped in the intake of alkali producing foods (i.e. those foods that at the end of digestion or burning process leave an alkaline ash.  The ratio of alkali forming to acid forming foods is approximately 4:1 in a normal healthy body. With the maintenance of such a ratio, the body has maximum resistance to infections.)

Ancient, Indian science of ayurveda also talks about consumption of  some amount of sweet taste (i.e. mahur ras) in our diet along with sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent. Desserts or sweet dish, according to ayurveda should be consumed with the meal or at the end of the meal. This taste could be acquired from fruits, milk etc. If these elements are used instead of processed sugar, they help our body in the formation of vital tissues also known as the 7 dhatus. Ayurveda says that sweet taste decreases the acidic sensation of the body and has a positive effect on hair, skin and body.

Today, when we talk of desserts, they are generally referred to sweets, chocolates, pastries, cakes, puddings etc. These are made up of acid producing foods like processed sugar, refined flour, processed fruit juices etc rather than raw sugar, fresh fruits and fruit juices and dried fruits like figs and dates which were used in olden days. Apart from being acid producing foods, these are calorie dense foods. Consumption of these foods with little or no physical activity leads to various lifestyle related disorders. This is where the problem arises when we talk about consuming desserts.

If the right type of dessert is consumed with right quantities, then they should definitely form an integral part of your diet routine. This holds true even when one is trying to keep a check of calories in order to reduce weight.