
10. Healthy Desserts
When we think of dessert, cake, ice cream or other generally unhealthy foods will come to mind. In Japan, dessert is used as a chance to cleanse and freshen the palate after a meal, rather than enjoying a heavy, sugar-laden snack. Japanese desserts often include fruits and have been developed over centuries by using available ingredients like rice and sweet beans so they are usually very low in sugar. One popular dessert in Japan is mocha, which is a rice cake made by pounding a particular style of rice – mochigome – until it becomes dough-like and sticky. Mochi can be stuffed with various fillings like sweet red bean paste, strawberries, and even ice cream. Dorayaki is another healthy Japanese dessert made from castella (a Japanese sponge cake) and topped with ingredients like chestnuts and whipped cream.

In Japan, fruit sandwiches, green tea meringue cookies, and squash or pumpkin pie are also popular dessert choices. There is no reason why you can’t enjoy dessert after a meal, but Western dessert tends to be high in refined flour, sugar, caramel and other fattening ingredients, which is where the unhealthy label comes from. Luckily, there are many ways to make dessert healthier by swapping out the bad ingredients for the good. Choose brown sugar rather than white, whole-wheat flour instead of refined, cocoa powder or cacao nibs instead of chocolate, and use a milk substitute like almond, coconut or rice milk in place of full cream milk. Making simple choices like this will gradually improve your health and your quality of life.