To choose or not to choose cake…. that is the question

In my experience, when my body sees a slice of yummy looking chocolate cake and says strongly "this is what I want, this is what I need, if you eat that I'll be satisfied and stop bugging you for food" …. if I go ahead and eat it, funnily enough my body still asks for more…. yes, it lies….

So if my body sees that slice of yummy looking chocolate cake and says that to me now, I respond quite firmly with something along these lines "Listen Body… I know you think that yummy looking chocolate cake is what you need, but because I love you, I'm going to give you a piece of fruit as a treat instead. It's a nice little package full of quality energy and repairs and maintenance which will make you feel a lot better and be a lot healthier for you than that horrible piece of chocolate cake."

Random yummy looking Chocolate Cake
Picture from taste.com.au
(my favourite online recipe source)

or I might say

"look, I know you think that yummy looking chocolate cake is what you need, but because I love you, I'm going to give you a nice healthy anytime food treat instead. It's a nice little package of repairs and maintenance food which will be much healthier for you than that horrible piece of chocolate cake." 

I figure if my body is going to be not entirely satisfied with the yummy looking chocolate cake (pretty much all short term energy and not much of anything else good for your body), it might as well be not entirely satisfied by a healthy piece of fruit (some good healthy energy and a whole lot of repairs and maintenance stuff) or an 'anytime food' snack (lots of healthy repairs and maintenance stuff).

Cakes, biscuits and desserts are often very sweet and sugary energy fuel without enough repairs and maintenance fuel to make them worth eating, and the energy they supply may not be the energy that is sustained over a longer period of time. This is because not all energy foods are equal.

Some energy foods give a quick burst of energy that doesn't last without much else of value, where as others give you a sustainable energy supply that lasts over a longer period of time. This is why fruit, rice, pasta and bread are more appropriate inclusions in the 'sometimes carbs' options. They provide energy fuel that provides a more sustainable energy supply along with some good repairs and maintenance fuel.

If you supply your body with sustainable energy fuel it is less likely to cry out for more food than if you feed it the quick burst of energy fuel that doesn't last. Choosing the right food options can mean the difference between feeling washed out, listless and lethargic (at which point I'm on the couch reaching for the easy food option) or alternately, feeling healthy and energetic (up to embracing the effort required for healthy eating and active living).

I know when I first started on this program, I found it hard to comprehend how I could eat so much less 'sugar/carbohydrate' (or energy food) and yet expend so much more energy without feeling completely washed out. And of course the answer was that the energy food I was eating was of much better quality providing a more sustainable release of energy to cover my activity and my day.

In fact, there was more too it than that. My body had been so bogged down with trying to process all those carbohydrates I was drowning it in and my blood sugar levels were too high. That also apparently can make one feel sluggish. I didn't realise that at the time, but when I read it later I was not at all surprised.

I knew it wasn't all the 'anytime food' that was providing me all this energy to sustain my massive increase in physical activity. It had to be the fruit, the bread, and the dairy, because at that stage that was pretty much all I was eating apart from anytime food and the protein (meat).

And these three serves of dairy, three serves of 'sometimes carbs' (bread) and three serves of fruit were supplying all my energy needs to keep me active and alert. Where as before I had been eating high carbohydrate but rarely dairy and rarely fruit, and had been always tired, always lethargic.

My only explanation when I studied the foods in the groupings my dietician had given me was that the fruit, dairy and 'listed sometimes carbs' where sufficient for my energy needs. And given how much less I was eating and how much more energetic I was feeling despite the massive increase in my output, it wasn't rocket science to work out that the energy foods I was now eating had to be providing a far better quality of energy than the food choices that had made up my previous eating plan.

If fact, I marvelled at how little of that energy food I must need if I wasn't doing all that extra activity per day. I marvelled at how I had managed to consume what I had been consuming before without feeling bloated and unwell. And it struck me. I had indeed been feeling bloated and unwell. I just hadn't realised at the time.

each serve of this yummy 
looking chocolate cake
97g of carbohydrate

I realised just how detrimental all the cakes and slice, biscuits, chocolate bars and deserts had been to my health, and just how unnecessary those items had been in terms of providing energy for my day let alone anything worthwhile for my health. Thats why, I'm sure you've noticed, that those items really don't fit particularly well into the 'modified food intake plan'.

Flour comes under the same group as the bread, pasta, rice and potato in the 'sometimes carb' group, but because cake, biscuits and dessert tend to come with a lot of added sugar as well, the grams of carbohydrate per serve usually prohibit their inclusion when you are talking no more than 25 to 30 grams of carbohydrate in one sitting.

And when you add to that the fact that there are only three 15gram of carbohydrate serves per day in the 'sometimes carb' group that doesn't leave much room to manoeuvre.

Just as a guide I had a browse of my favourite online recipe treasure trove, taste.com.au. You'll find I refer to it often. One of the things I like about it is that it often (not always) lists the nutrition content of its recipes.
For example ...
Chocolate Cake per serve from 50g to 100g of carbohydrate
Lemon Meringue Pie per serve from 50g to 80g of carbohydrate
Apple Pie per serve from 35g to 50g of carbohydrate
Banana Cake (plain) per serve from 30g to 40g of carbohydrate
Cheese Cake (plain) per serve from 30g to 40g of carbohydrate
Pavlova/Meringue per serve from 40g to 60g of carbohydrate

Obviously the level of carbohydrate will vary depending on the actual recipe and the serving size, but you get the general idea.

So you see how your 15g of carbohydrate snack stacks up.
For example ...

Fruit Medley
Total Carbohydrate 98g
6 full 15g serves
plus a kiwi fruit (½ Serve)
Turned into a yummy bowl
of fresh fruit salad

an apple
a pear
a banana
a kiwi fruit and a mandarin
90grams grapes
20 cherries
a peach
an orange
a couple of apricots
¼ small rockmellon
150g strawberries
(or your own little fruit salad)
three Sao crackers with a bit of smoked salmon, cottage cheese, rocket and tomato on top
our nut bar between 10 and 20g carbohydrate
or some other 15g alternative of your choice.
or
that yummy looking slice of chocolate cake at
97grams of carbohydrate.

For comparison, this bowl of fruit salad, made from the pictured assortment of fruit is about 98grams of carbohydrate. I know which one looks appealing to me.

Now, at this point I have to say, I'm not an advocate of never eating cake. I just figure if 120grams of Carbohydrate is all I need for the day, I don't want to regularly waste ¼ or ⅓ or ½ or or more of that 120g on sweet sugary stuff that isn't really bringing anything healthy to my body.

So I save these items for those occasions where it seems appropriate, and when I want to eat it. If it doesn't look like I want to eat it I don't. If I don't feel like I want to eat it I don't. If it doesn't taste good when I get it I don't eat it.  It has to look good, I have to feel like it, when I get it it has to taste good and I have to consider it an appropriate occasion to indulge.

For instance, this afternoon I am meeting with a wonderful group of friends that I have 30 years history with. We don't all get to meet up so regularly these days as many of us have moved further afield and both work and distance can keep us apart. In fact today we are meeting to wish one of our friends all the best as she moves home to a place a couple of hours away.

I call that an occasion to share a piece of cake. But only if it looks good and I feel like eating it. Otherwise I will decline and just enjoy the company, the friendship and the conversation, and lets face it, when we get together for 'coffee' it's the friendship, company and conversation that we are really there for.

So my cake eating advice such as it is….

Deliberately choose your occasion.
Deliberately choose your cake.

But if in any doubt….

Very deliberately choose your good health.