Just eat the damn cake, you guys.
It’s International No Diet Day, so we’re bringing you the best news we’ve ever heard.
Chocolate cake is healthy.
Don’t believe us? You should, because science says so.
Yes, a study conducted by the University of Tel Aviv has revealed that starting your day with a slice of cake alongside food high in carbohydrates and proteins could actually give you better long term results than traditionally healthier options. Excuse us while we jump for joy.
Eating cake for breakfast also meant you were less likely to give into your cravings throughout the day.
Apparently morning is the best time to consume sweets because our body’s metabolism is at its most active, and we have the rest of the day to work off the calories.
Want more cake? Of course you do: Someone made a life-sized Jennifer Lawrence cake because why not?
To make what could be the best discovery of the century, researchers split 193 clinically obese, non-diabetic adults into two groups. The first consumed a low-carb diet that included a 300-calorie breakfast, while the second group consumed a balanced 600-calorie breakfast that included a chocolate cake dessert.
At the halfway point of the 32-week study, both groups had lost an average of around 14 kilos. But during the second half of the study, the first group has regained an average of just under 10 kilos per person, while the cake eaters lost an additional six kilos.
While both groups consumed the same number of calories daily, the participants in the first group had less satisfaction and felt they were not full, making their cravings for sugars and carbohydrates more intense and eventually caused them to cheat on their diet plan, according to co-study author Professor Daniela Jakubowicz.
Speaking of diets… The 4 fad diets that you should definitely NOT try. But I did.
“The group that consumed a bigger breakfast, including dessert, experience few if any cravings for these foods later in the day,” she wrote in a statement.
“Attempting to avoid sweets entirely can create a psychological addition to these same foods in the long term.”
However natural therapist Dr Danielle Ashley has some concerns about people using it as an excuse to consume the wrong foods.
“According to Chinese dietics the digestive organs are most active between 7am and 9am. This would technically be the best time to eat sweets in a healthy person,” she explains.
If you do plan to start “the cake diet”, Dr Ashley also has some recommendations to keep in mind.
“If you adopt the approach of eating cake or sweets for breakfast you are starting the day with a meal that has very low nutrition and is potentially bad for your wellbeing,” she says.
“Eating just cake for breakfast lacks protein and has too much sugar, which would end up creating an insulin spike and cause a sugar crash later on. It’s not a satisfactory breakfast and is also a plain bad dietary habit if it becomes regular!”
Just eat the damn cake: It’s official: Dietitians have voted on the world’s 3 most stupid and ineffective diets.
So while eating only cake for breakfast everyday is probably not well advised, the study shows a valid point – it’s better to enjoy your favourite foods every so often rather than cut them out completely and then feel guilty when you give into your cravings. Cake to celebrate, anyone?
This article orginally appeared on The Glow.
Click through the gallery below of some (unhealthy) food porn from Melbourne food blogger ButterBaking. Mmmmm.
Top Comments
"the first group had less satisfaction and felt they were not full," - This makes sense because carbohydrates drive insulin response and hunger. If you feel deprived you WILL cheat.
The trick about low carb diets is to include a higher healthy fat content to squash the hunger.
If breakfast was only 300 calories, i wonder about the other meals. Anyone can lose on a low calorie diet in the short term, but will gain it back and then some in the long term.
I have lost and kept off 26kg on a low-carb healthy fat eating program for over a year, while eating delicious food. I am confident that most people can do the same.
I firmly believe that a good support group or coach is the best way to begin one's weight loss journey.
What a load of rubbish! Yes have the occasional piece a cake as a treat but saying to start your day eating sugar filled processed non nutrition food is crazy talk. You need fats and proteins to sustain your energy and keep the brain working for hours, a piece of cake will last 5 min then you may as well go back to bed!
Did you properly read the article? the study group had a nutriotionally balanced breakfast which INCLUDED a chocolate cake dessert... So no doubt they had protein etc. and only a small piece of chocolate cake.