That Time a Nutritionist Told You to Eat Cake

Photo by Food Photographer | Jennifer Pallian on Unsplash

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This is the second in a series of posts related to sugar & sugar consumption. (First post here.) As someone who spent 30-years binge-eating and struggling with the white powder, I know that of which I speak. I also have a diploma in Holistic Nutrition*

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Marie Antoinette supposedly said "Let them eat cake!"

I'm with her on that; I think you should eat cake.

I mean, only if you want to; if you're not particularly inclined to eat cake, then don't (I don't understand, but ok.)

But if you want to eat cake, EAT CAKE.

In the long run, you will eat less cake if you allow yourself to have it, than by trying to forbid yourself from eating it.

I understand this might sound crazy and counter-intuitive to you, especially coming from someone who has a diploma in Holistic Nutrition (with a specialization in Sports Fitness Nutrition, no less).

Shouldn't I be telling you how BAD sugar is and that you should never eat anything other than foods that taste like / look like / come from DIRT???

Photo by Dylan de Jonge on Unsplash

To be clear, I don't think you should LIVE off of cake, making it your primary food source.

That's an exceptionally bad idea.

But if you want to eat cake, should you forbid yourself from eating cake?

No. 

That's also an exceptionally bad idea.

Why?

Because not allowing yourself to eat certain foods is what creates a halo around those foods and causes you to crave them even more because you feel you can't have them.

I spent 30-years binge-eating which I realize in hindsight was the result of a lifetime of restrictive dieting. I was trying to do the all-or-nothing approach (to eat NO cake or ALL the cake) which for most people doesn't work. It sure as heck didn't work for me!

Here's what would happen:

I would go on yet another diet, which obviously demanded that I cut out all sugar.

And for a while, a few days or even a week or two if I could really white-knuckle it; I wouldn't have any sweets, no cake, no nothing.

But then, on a particularly stressful day when I was tired and my defences were down, I would have a little something something.

Once the flood gates opened, I went whole-hog and stuffed my face with anything that contained sugar.

I binged in a way that could only be described as violent, making up for the days or weeks of not allowing myself to eat certain foods.

Standard license through iStock.com / © Zdenek Sasek

When it comes to our kryptonite foods - sweets in this case - we think the options are as follows:

1 - Eat sweets

2 - Eat no sweets

But for most of us, all-or-nothing doesn't work.

A realistic scenario looks more like one of the following:

1 - Eat a moderate portion of a well-chosen dessert

2 - Binge violently on staggering amounts of sweets

Image Credit: Author

Intense focus on avoiding anything will cause you to obsess about the thing you're trying to avoid thinking about.

It's easier to just let yourself eat the cake - to know that you can have cake anytime you want it - rather than trying to avoid it for a while, only to then make yourself sick on it.

Bingeing is taxing on the body, and worse still, detrimental to your self-esteem; it's something that just feels BAD, physically and emotionally.

What I've discovered after a LIFETIME (30-years!) of going through the deprivation / binge cycle is that by giving myself permission to eat something, I actually eat less of it.

In a perfect world, all of us would only ever crave healthy food, dancing through fields of organic arugula and sprouted grains, denying the existence (let alone the desire) for cake.

But the world isn't perfect, and cake is YUMMY.

Photo by Christopher Luther on Unsplash

Eating cake all the time is a hedonistic and self-destructive habit.

Never eating cake is an ascetic and, I believe, equally self-destructive habit.

Rather than forbidding yourself from eating cake, allow yourself to eat it in moderation; and yes moderation is possible.

We don't behave like feral animals around the mundane and plentiful things in our lives.

When your brain knows for sure your cake isn't going anywhere, it won't hold on for dear life and you won't be tempted to eat the whole thing in one sitting.

Because you can always have another piece tomorrow.

Photo by David Holifield on Unsplash

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*Although I have a diploma in Holistic Nutrition with a specialization in Sports Fitness Nutrition, I'm not a doctor. Always seek the advice of your physician before undertaking a new health care regimen. I only offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for better health. In the event you use any of this information for yourself, I do not assume responsibility for your actions.

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For more on how to give yourself complete and total permission to eat anything you want, click ⭐ here ⭐ to get my guide on how to Quit Binge Eating — yours FREE with subscription to my site.

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