The acai bowl is one of the trendiest foods around. It’s almost like you can’t go one full day on Instagram without seeing a snap or two of them. Trust me, there’s good reason for this—they look amazing.
The combo of fresh, blended fruit and the plethora of toppings make acai bowls irresistible, but all that fresh fruit comes at a cost. With the combos of fruits that are in each bowl, this treat can easily give you one hell of a sugar high.
Even though—for the most part—an acai bowl is full of natural sugars, it’s still a little much if you indulge in a bowl on the daily. Bowls from popular chains like Jamba Juice and Juice It Up! can often cap out at over sixty grams of sugar. That’ll give you one hell of a cavity.
But, there are definitely ways to keep your sugar content down and keep getting your acai fix. You just might have to get a little creative! That said, if you’re posting pics of your acai bowl on Instagram, creative plating and recipes might not be that hard for you to manage. These helpful tips will be sweet on your IG and on your taste buds!
Experiment with low sugar fruits
A serving of acai berries, which is about 100 grams, clocks in at 2 grams of sugar. But, you probably won’t stop at just acai berries when making an acai bowl. For more depth in flavor, add some low sugar fruits to the mix.
Summer favorites like raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries all have less than 7 grams of sugar per a cup serving. If that’s even a little high for you, you can really experiment and try throwing some avocado into the mix.
It may seem like a weird combination, but avos only have 1 gram of sugar per serving, which would sweeten up recipes like this banana cacao bowl without overdoing it.
Stick to one “fun” topping
When I make myself bowls, I have a terrible habit of going overboard with toppings. Cinnamon, chia seeds, berries, bananas, shredded coconut—a lot of times I forget about the bowl underneath!
While it’s always fun to dress up an acai bowl, if you’re not careful about the toppings you’re putting on your bowl, the sugar content can quickly spiral out of control. Once you have your low sugar fruits blended in, try sticking to one fun topping in a pretty design.
15 grams of unsweetened shredded coconut will only set you back 1 measly gram of sugar. Compare this to over 16 grams of sugar in clover honey and 12.5 grams of sugar in your average bowl of granola.
Swap fruit juice for almond milk
If you’re a fan of adding fruit juice to your acai bowl in the blending process, maybe you should think about almond milk instead! Almond milk is a great substitute if you’re looking to shake up your dairy intake without losing the creaminess of cow’s milk.
Another great thing about almond milk is that it comes in a great number of unsweetened varieties, and some even have a winning combo of flavoring and low sugar. My fave variety of unsweetened vanilla almond milk has 0 (absolutely none) grams of sugar.
Use powdered peanut butter
I’ve written time and time again about my love for powdered peanut butters like PB2 and PBFit, and I have plenty of good reason to do so. Powdered peanut butters are pretty much made with just crushed peanuts and salt. Nothing else.
So, because of that, powdered peanut butter is a great ingredient to add into a low sugar acai bowl. PB2 has 1 gram of sugar for a two tablespoon serving, which leaves plenty of room to add some more sugar dense fruits and toppings if your heart desires. Go ahead and go (pea)nuts!
Cut down on your serving sizes
This last tip is the simplest, especially if you can’t cut down on the fruits and toppings you love in your acai bowl. If you want to eat less sugar with every acai bowl, just eat less of your acai bowl with each serving!
There are plenty of tricks to help cut down on servings, from smaller bowls, to a plate, to different spoons—the possibilities are endless! Moderation is key in all foods, and an acai bowl is no different.
There’s no reason you should have to give up on your favorite summer acai bowl just because of sugar. Thankfully, there are plenty of tips and tricks you can try to keep your sugar levels down. Try one, or a few, of these out and see what a sweet difference it can make!