There are some foods so sweet and delicious you think they can’t possibly be okay for your blood sugar. While plums are delightfully sweet, they are actually a healthy fruit that will not spike your blood sugar and may even help it! In addition to helping to stabilize blood sugar, plums can help your body in several other ways. They are still in season and available at roadside stands (if they are open) and supermarkets.

Before we dive in, we should point out that prunes — dried plums — have the same great qualities, and many people find that they are great for staying regular. And, prunes have a low GI. But, the problem with prunes — and all dried fruit — is that they are too darn easy to eat. You can eat a handful of prunes without thinking. You couldn’t eat five plums without blinking an eye, but you wouldn’t think twice about it with prunes. While the amount of sugar in one plum is acceptable, five is quite another thing. Plums have a low energy density, meaning that the amount of food to calorie ratio is outstanding because of their water content. You get a lot of bites without getting many calories. Once you dry them, that changes.

A plum contains 30 calories, eight grams of carbs and one gram of fiber. They also have 10 percent of your daily vitamin C. They are rich in antioxidants that help lower inflammation and may lower the risk of cancer and heart disease. Plums have been shown to reduce both high blood pressure and cholesterol.

They also help increase adiponectin, which can help regulate blood sugar levels. High adiponectin levels help the body’s reaction to insulin and lower the risk of a heart attack. With only one gram per plum, they cannot be considered a good source of fiber. However, they do have a low GI and have been shown to help blood sugar stabilization.

Plums are excellent because their mild flavor lets you eat them as a raw, delicious fruit, cooked into savory dishes, baked into a low-carb dessert or a sugar-free plum jam. Any recipe you can use another fruit in, you can add in a plum. But, the texture of biting through the skin of a fresh plum into the fruit is hard to beat. So, while cooking with them is excellent, we always return to just enjoying the fruit raw!

Nowadays, you can get produce all year round, but we like to eat in season. Sometimes it’s nice to savor the very last of the summer. Fall is here — both officially and according to the thermometer — winter is coming fast. Enjoy this fruit while it’s still here. This sweet and healthy fruit tastes like it should be bad for you as it gives you so many health benefits. Feast on the summer flavor even as you start looking for pumpkins; it will be out of season in just a few weeks!