Chocolate cake has this hypnotic effect on people, no matter what their age is. No time is a bad time for cake; unless you're on a diet and trying to shed those stubborn pounds. But worry not – new research has established that eating chocolate cake, at practically any time of the day, is extremely beneficial for weight loss!
Dark chocolate has been considered the not-so-evil twin of regular chocolate for a while now, and for good reason too. It helps our cognitive function – meaning, it helps us to stay sharp. And the study from Tel Aviv University in Israel has been able to find that eating cake for breakfast can help weight loss.
The study's results showed the section of participants that consumed large 600-calorie breakfasts including a dessert item, lost about 15 pounds later in the follow-up period of the study, as opposed to the section that ate small, 300-calorie breakfasts without any cakes or cookies.
The loss of weight can be explained by the study's findings that stated that those consumed the heavier breakfast with dessert, also experienced lower levels of ghrelin – the appetite-stimulating hormone. This automatically helped them have less food craving later in the day than those eating the lighter breakfast.
"The dessert usually decreases the carb craving later in the day," the study's lead author Dr. Daniela Jakubowicz and the author of the bestseller, The Big Breakfast Diet, was quoted as saying by YourTango.com.
She added: "When you wake up, your brain needs energy immediately. This is the time of day when your body converts food into energy. Later in the day, when you eat, your body and brain are still in high-alert mode, saving the energy from food as fat reserve. This is how you gain weight even eating less."
Being on a diet naturally increases the ghrelin levels in the body as we keep getting hungrier, but side by side metabolism also reduced. A large breakfast, on the other hand, is full of protein, carbs and something sweet, which can help stabilize these changes. This helps people stay on their diet for longer and maintain their weight loss regime too.
And when it comes to eating cakes for breakfast, dark chocolate cakes are the chosen ones because past studies have also revealed that people who eat dark chocolate are the ones with a healthier cardiovascular system. Dark chocolate is also known to keep heart diseases at bay, with multiple other health benefits including, blood circulation, lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol levels, and fewer strokes.
"Dark chocolate should be part of a life plan that includes eating healthy foods that are largely plant-based, getting regular exercise and adequate sleep, reducing stress, and maintaining a [healthy] weight," cardiologist and columnist T. Jared Bunch of the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Murray, Utah told EverydayHealth.com.
This, however, doesn't mean you invest your whole weight loss diet into eating chocolate cake. Overdoses of refined sugar and flour aren't good for anybody, so if you're on a diet, you can occasionally eat your chocolate cake for breakfast – just to keep your cravings satisfied!
