Limiting sugar intake can be a great way to up energy, improve health, and avoid cavities, but it can be difficult to balance nutrition and a nagging sweet tooth.
“There is no one-size-fits-all,” said registered dietician Danielle Omar. Recommended sugar intake depends on a person’s health history and lifestyle, but limiting to six teaspoons of sugar a day is a great start, she said. Omar shared her banana chia pudding recipe with us to get ahead of the sugar cravings, and it only has two teaspoons of sugar.
Almond Crumb Cake Pudding
Serves 4
Banana Chia Pudding
- 1 Tbsp almond butter
- 1 Cup cold water
- 2 Dates
- 1 Banana
- 4 Tbsp chia seed
- 1/2 Tsp cinnamon
- 12 oz Greek banana yogurt
Topping
- 2 Tbsp raw oats
- 1/4 Cup raw almonds
- 2 Tsp brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp coconut oil
- Dash cinnamon
- Dash sea salt
Directions
- Blend 1/4 cup of almonds in your blender until they are crushed and resemble large sand granules. Remove them from the blender and set aside in a small bowl.
- Then add the almond butter, cold water, 2 tablespoons of chia seed, and dates into your blender. Blend until well incorporated. Add the banana and blend again.
- Place this mixture into a bowl and refrigerate while you make the topping. To the small bowl of crushed almonds, add the oats, cinnamon, dash of sea salt and brown sugar, then add the coconut oil and mix with your fingers until it resembles a crumb topping.
- Remove the chia pudding from the fridge and mix in the remaining chia seed. If it looks fine as it is, don’t add it…but I needed to add more.
- Stir it up and place back in fridge for 30 minutes or overnight.
- Once it’s ready, serve parfait style with banana yogurt layered in the middle and the crumb topping on top.
Danielle Omar is a registered dietitian, nutrition consultant, and founder of foodconfidence.com.
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