How to you choose the best sugar free popsicles or low sugar frozen treats in the freezer section of the grocery store? Do you choose by flavor? Maybe you’re looking for something with a specific ingredient like chocolate. Or perhaps you check the pictures on the boxes for something fruity.
If you have diabetes (like me), then you are likely picking up the boxes and looking at ingredients and the nutrition panel. But sometimes even that can be tricky. So let’s take a look at some options below to learn what the best sugar free popsicles might be.

The Best Sugar Free Popsicles and Low Sugar Frozen Treats
There are tons of popsicle brands and choices for frozen treats. My favorite grocery store has an entire freezer aisle dedicated to frozen desserts! But when you have diabetes and want to balance blood sugars while enjoying a delicious treat, what do you pick?
1. Sugar Free Popsicles
There are, of course, sugar-free popsicles. I feel like people think this is the obvious choice for someone with diabetes. If something is sugar free, it shouldn’t affect our blood sugar much, right? Maybe. But what are they using instead of sugar?
Popsicle Brand Sugar Free Popsicles
It’s right there in big, bold print on the top right corner of the box. SUGAR FREE. So we know the carbs should be super low, and they are — a total of 4g of carbs per popsicle. So that’s a good start.

But if they’re not using sugar in these popsicles, they’re using a sugar substitute as a sweetener. So what is it? A quick look at the ingredients will tell us.
water, glycerin, maltodextrin (corn), less than 2% of: citric acid, guar gum, vegetable juice (for color), aspartame, acesulfame potassium, natural and artificial flavor, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), turmeric oleoresin (for color), annatto extract (for color), locust bean gum
I don’t enjoy that it lists “artificial flavors” – that seems super vague. And what on earth is locust bean gum?! (Breathe easy. A quick Google search assured me that it actually has nothing to do with locusts.)
But maltodextrin is a processed white powder made from corn that is known to cause blood sugar spikes. That’s no good. Acesulfame potassium is a controversial alternative sweetener to sugar. And aspartame is basically a concentrated artificial sweetener, and it’s one of the most controversial ones.
So here’s my caution to you. It’s very easy to look at a box that says “sugar free” and assume it’s best for someone with diabetes. But that’s not always the case. Over the years, I have started paying more and more attention to the foods I choose to put into my body, and I have started avoiding aspartame specifically. (And locusts.)
Make Your Own Sugar Free Popsicles Healthier
With this in mind, if this is the kind of popsicle you’re after, can I make a suggestion that will save you some dollars at the grocery store over time, and also provide you with a much better quality popsicle?
Make your own.
Now, I’m not talking about going crazy in the kitchen, dirtying every dish, and creating a total mess you’ll hate to clean up. Not at all. This is just a super simple, very practical idea. And I know you’ll love it.
In case you don’t have popsicle molds for yourself at home, I would suggest this one. (We personally own this kind, and I love how flexible it is to help get the popsicles out!) Once you have the mold, you can simply pour your favorite Gatorade Zero flavor into the containers, place the handles, and let it freeze. It honestly is that simple!
Or you can always flavor some water with a drink mix and pour that into the mold. Something like True Lemon is good quality. Using coconut water and a squeeze of orange juice would help give it a tropical flavor too. How refreshing on hot summer days!
You could make a ton of ice pop varieties with this easy recipe. And this way you can control the quality of ingredients in the popsicles you choose to eat.

BONUS: ICE CREAM AND SHERBET FOR DIABETICS
2. Organic Popsicles + Real Ingredients
As a sugar-free alternative, I would suggest choosing a popsicle with real ingredients and natural flavor from the store. You will have a few more carbs in these options, but if you can work those carbs into your diet, it is healthier for your body overall. Here are a few of those options.
Deebee’s Superfruit Freezie Pops
With 100% fruit juice and no added sugars, there are only 6g of carbs in each bar of Deebee’s Superfruit Freezie Pops. They are a low-sugar popsicle brand, and they avoid any artificial flavors or colors as well.
These popsicles are sweetened by apple and grape juices instead of sugar or artificial sweeteners. These are organic, gluten free, and vegan friendly as well.

Goodpop No Added Sugar Popsicles
Goodpop is another example that is extremely similar to the Deebee’s option above. These whole fruit popsicles are made from 100% fruit juice with no added sugar. Each pop contains only 6g of carbs.
Goodpop is organic, vegan and dairy free, gluten free, kosher, and never contains HFCS, GMOs, refined sugar, or sugar alcohol sweeteners. The other thing I like about Goodpop is they have tons of flavors and varieties of different frozen treats to choose from.

Sweet Nothings Squeezable Smoothies
I would call these a cousin to a traditional popsicle because you can choose to either freeze or refrigerate these. (And that tells me these would be great to freeze overnight and throw into a lunch pail for a kid’s school lunch!)
These squeezable smoothies are plant-based and gluten free with no artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives. They are made of 100% real vegetables and fruits with chia seeds too. I’m always looking to get my kids more vegetables somehow, and these even have beet juice. Looks like the perfect choice!

3. Low Sugar Frozen Treats
An option that is even better for someone with diabetes is to choose a pop with real ingredients with a relatively low amount of sugar, and a combination of fat, fiber, and protein. The fat, fiber, and protein will help stabilize blood sugar and help avoid a spike after eating your treat.
Here are a few options to get you started thinking in these terms about low-sugar popsicles.
Kind Frozen Treat Bars
You may be familiar with Kind granola bars, but the Kind frozen bars are worth a try. Their chocolate cherry almond and nut variety has 3g of protein and 7g of fiber!
No, they’re not traditional popsicles on popsicle sticks, technically, but they are an amazing frozen treat! They also have a peanut butter dark chocolate option, as well as a dark chocolate sea salt one too.

Whole Foods Market Dessert Bars
These Whole Foods Market dessert bars are also a great choice for healthy popsicles. Even as a low calories bar, they offer only 1g of fat and 4g protein. There are several flavors of these bars as well, including blueberry and coffee.
One of the reasons I enjoy these is that they are made with greek yogurt. That’s how they’re able to offer the protein in this dessert, and I just think it’s brilliant.

Yasso Greek Yogurt Bars
Another greek yogurt based dessert bar comes from Yasso. There are several varieties of Yasso that offer 25% less sugar. And they all contain 4-5g of protein per bar!
Again with the whole ingredients and more balanced nutrition, these kinds of choices win me over. And the Yasso flavors are really delicious: chocolate chip cookie dough, mint chocolate chip, and fudge brownie are all a part of their 25% less sugar varieties.

Homemade Greek Yogurt Pops: the Best Sugar Free Popsicles
Knowing what we know now…
- sugar free doesn’t always mean zero grams of sugar
- real ingredients are better
- and greek yogurt helps offer protein
…we know we can easily make our own!
If you’re not set on buying store-bought popsicles, making your own is easier than you think. And it will likely result in the healthiest popsicles.
All you need is some greek yogurt, some ripe fruits or fresh berries of your choice, and a popsicle mold. That’s literally it. In a couple hours, you will have fresh and delicious low sugar popsicles to enjoy!
If you’d like your homemade popsicles to be sweeter, try natural sweeteners like honey. Honey goes super well with greek yogurt and with fruit.
The other reason I love this idea is that it’s so simple the kids can help. And my kids will be glad to eat something they helped to make!
So just chop up your favorite flavors of fresh fruits into small chunks, mix it with the greek yogurt, and spoon it into the mold. Ta da!

More Diabetic Friendly Dessert Recipes
- Sugar Free Oatmeal Cookies with Chocolate Chips
- Oatmeal Cookie Recipe with Orange and Raspberry
- High Protein Chocolate Peanut Butter Diabetic Bars
CARBS FOR These Popsicles and Frozen Treats
There are definitely carbs in even sugar free popsicles. Be sure to work these treats into your healthy diet how you best manage your diabetes. And be sure to count the total carbs (or net carbs when dealing with fiber) in the specific products you purchase. Different brands vary in ingredients, so be doubly sure of the nutritional information in what you’re eating.
Why do Sugar Free Popsicles have Carbs?
Now this is a GREAT question! Most of the time, when something marketed as “sugar free” what they actually mean is that there is no added sugar. And that’s different than being sugar free.
Case in point – a “sugar free” apple pie (have you seen those?) contains sugar. It has to or they aren’t using real apples, because apples contain natural sugar. But they are likely using a different sweetener other than sugar for the filling and the bit in the pie crust. This “sugar free” apple pie has a sugar content on the nutrition label because of the natural sugar in the apples.
In researching for this post, I checked out a store that offers these kinds of pies. I was super impressed to see their label said “no sugar added” apple pie. So I looked at the ingredient list to see what they were using in place of sugar…

Do you see ingredient #5?! SUGAR! I thought this was a no sugar added apple pie, but they’ve clearly added sugar. And then corn syrup next. You’ve got to be kidding me!
I won’t tell you which store it was because I don’t want to point fingers. But friend… count your carbs and read your labels. It’s obvious from this example right here that we can’t take things at face value. We are responsible for knowing what we put into our bodies. (Ok. Rant over.)
DID YOU try these Best Sugar Free Popsicles?
If you’ve tried any of these best sugar free popsicles or other frozen treats, would you please let me know? And tell me about your popsicle making results too! I would love to hear from you.
If you want more diabetic friendly recipes, please join my VIP list and follow along on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram for the latest updates.
NOTE: I am not a certified nutritionist or registered dietician. Nothing here should be taken as professional medical advice. Any nutritional information provided should be used as a general guideline and estimate only. For the most accurate information, please check the specific brands you buy.
Looking for More?
PIN FOR LATER

Recommended Recipes
Related Topics

COUNT CARBS and Nutrition Facts EASILY
Looking for a way to count your carbs, fat, fiber, and protein easily? Look no further…
I love how this template makes counting nutrition facts SO easy. You literally list the total grams from each ingredient, total it at the bottom, and divide by the number of servings. Voila!
This recipe template walks you through every step. And you can keep it for future reference. Just calculate it once and you’re done!
Check my Etsy store for an instant download that includes a cover page, section header pages for different kinds of recipes, section tabs, and this recipe template.
