Behold: This Is An MD's Favorite Dessert That Won't Spike Your Blood Sugar

In a perfect world, you might stick to blood-sugar-balancing foods rich in protein, fiber, and healthy fats, eat dinner earlier in the evening, and get plenty of high-quality sleep. Balancing blood sugar is important for metabolic health, but sometimes, well, life happens—and you may indulge in a sweet after-dinner treat or spend a late night with friends. Your mental health is a vital component of your overall well-being, so if sharing a dessert with some loved ones makes you feel good, who are we to deprive you of that joy? 

Although, if you really want to focus on avoiding glucose spikes, you could opt for protein- and fiber-rich desserts that actually have blood-sugar-balancing properties. For example, Stanford-trained physician and co-founder of Levels Casey Means, M.D., has her go-to recipe: "At dinner parties, I'll sometimes serve a really fancy chia pudding," she shares on the mindbodygreen podcast. 

Of course, the star ingredient here is chia: "Chia is such an amazing superfood," says Means. "It's got so much fiber and protein in just two tablespoons." Fiber is especially top-notch for slowing digestion and preventing blood sugar spikes—in fact, a 2016 study in the journal Nature shows that eating chia could slow down the glucose response1.