A Tel Aviv University study has shown thattake sweets, including chocolate, as part of a600 calorie balanced breakfastin which proteins and carbohydrates are also incorporatedcan help you lose weight. The key, the researchers say, is to be “indulgent” in the morning, when the body’s metabolism is most active and we are able to burn the “extra” calories throughout the day. Avoiding sweets altogether can create a long-term psychological addiction. Butby adding desserts to breakfast we avoid cravings the rest of the day, scientists conclude in the journalSteroids.
In an experiment carried out over several weeks with almost two hundred obese adult subjects, men and women, who had to undergo a diet, the study authors found thatthose who added cookies or chocolate to their first meal of the day lost more weight and maintained their weight loss longer. Specifically, while half of the group ate a low-carbohydrate diet with a breakfast of just 300 calories, the other half of the participants ate a total of 600 calories for breakfast, with foods rich in protein and carbohydrates, including a piece of chocolate cake. . Although at the beginning they all lost the same weight, in the long run (in 32 weeks)the second group lost an average of 18 kilos more.
Breakfast is the meal that most efficiently controls the levels of ghrelin, the hormone responsible for ravenous hunger, explains Daniela Jakubowicz, co-author of the work. Although dietitians routinely advise giving up sweets to lose weight, Israeli researchers note that this is not necessary at breakfast. Eliminating them completely even increases the desire to eat those foods.
