If you are diabetic or watching your weight, you may want to try preparing your foods with Stevia.  This all natural sweetener has zero calories and zero carbohydrates.  It contains no fat and has an impressive "0" on the glycemic index.  Also in its favor is that it doesn't have all the known potential side effects of other sugar substitutes like aspartame and sucralose. 

Stevia comes in a variety of forms, including whole leaves, liquid extract and stevia powder (or stevia extract powder).  While many of your favorite desserts can be made using this natural sweetener over regular granulated sugar, there are a few which won't work.  This is because stevia won't caramelize like regular sugar.  So desserts such as meringues or burnt crème won't come out very well if you try to prepare them with a stevia sweetener. 

Regular sugar helps retain moisture and also creates volume in desserts.  Breads and cakes which need to rise will require at least some sugar, since stevia won't activate the yeast.  Also, sugar browns foods when baked.  When you bake cookies with stevia, they will not brown the same.  So keep in mind that when you substitute it in these dishes, they may come out looking somewhat different that what you are used to.  One option to lessen this effect is to replace only half of the sugar in the recipe with stevia.  While it won't be sugar free, it will have far fewer calories by preparing it this way.  

While some people notice a faint licorice or mint aftertaste when they use stevia, this will partly depend on the quality level of the product as well as how you use it and the other ingredients you combine it with.  Also, because stevia sweetleaf is nearly 300 times as sweet as granulated sugar, it takes very little to have a big impact on whatever you are preparing.  To put it in perspective, only one teaspoon of stevia powder is equivalent to an entire cup of table sugar.  If you are not precise when you measure, you may end up with an intensely sweet dessert!  If you want the dish to be a little less sweet, you can add either lemon or vanilla flavorings.  

Generally, it is the most difficult to try to create recipes which are entirely sugar free with stevia.  So, one of the best things to do is use another food to make up for the bulk that regular sugar would have added to the food.  Some good bulking foods include apple sauce, yogurt, egg whites, fruit puree, or fruit juice.  Using a bulking food which correlates with the dish you are preparing is best.  For example, if you are baking pumpkin bread, pumpkin puree would be perfect.  A general rule of thumb is to add 1/3 cup of the bulking food or liquid for each cup of sugar that the original recipe called for.   

If you love your desserts and want to enjoy them without all the guilt, stevia is definitely a great alternative for sugar.   Just be sure you purchase a high quality brand and use it sparingly.  It may take a little experimentation, but the rewards are definitely worth it.