September
2007
How to Cheat
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The Count ‘n Learn (how to be sick and fat for a lifetime) Cookie Jar for kids.
Education at its finest! Thanks, Count ‘n Learn!
We’re clearly no fans of sweets around these parts, but we’ve received some emails and seen some forum chatter about how to properly “cheat”. Sweets and health do not go together, but if you’re going to cheat, you’d better know what you’re getting yourself into!
How to Eat Candy: Knowing Your Enemy
Candy is great, right? Because we know itâs bad. We donât have to worry about sugar levels, weâve made the decision of reckless abandon when we make the purchase, and eating sweet caramel nougat covered inâŠ.more nougat is a way of rebelling against, well, mainly against yourself, but itâs still rebellion, which is always a joy.
This is the day Markâs Daily Apple aims you in the direction of such joys as candy corn - only this time, we’re going to look at candy corn with our eyes wide open. (Which, interestingly enough, has fewer calories per cup than raisins. Yeah, how do you like that, Mr. Happy Sun on my Raisin Bran with your two scoops of doom?)
So how do you plan a realistic rebellion? Here are our tips on how to eat candy:
1. Candy is not to be mistaken with food. Period. It’s not better than “going hungry”. You are never going to be that starving that you need candy.
Despite what the marketers feed you, Snickersâ motto âHungry? Why wait? Grab a Snickers,â makes about as much sense as Phillip-Morris saying, âPhysical and mental problems? Why wait? Grab a Marlboro.â
While candies are high in calories, they are empty calories. Most candies give you a bit of calcium, but few candies contain any protein or fiber necessary to sate the bodyâs needs. Youâd have to eat 30 Snickers bars to get your daily fiber and protein, and of course, no vitamins are included.
Eating a large volume of candy will leave you feeling full for about 40 minutes while your digestive system breaks down the calories. Then, you go right back to starving mode.
Candies donât satisfy hunger, but they can satisfy cravings. So, know the difference!
- Hunger is physiological, cravings are psychological
- If you are hungry, your stomach may growl (cravings donât cause stomach growls)
- Hunger grows, cravings pass
- Hunger increases the likelihood of cravings, but cravings can be brought about from memory, sights (commercials), and most often smells (the brownie scent pumped into the air around Mrs. Fieldsâ cookie stands at the mall)
If youâre hungry, why wait? Grab a to-go salad.
2. Go For Taste, Not Volume.
The sugar in candy stimulates your taste buds, which send signals to release endorphins and dopamine into your brain, which means happy fun times. Of course you could also exercise or have sex if youâre looking for those mighty endorphin power rangers.
So, the more candy, the more dopamine, right? In fact, quite the opposite is true. The Malthusian law of diminishing returns is applicable to candy. The first taste of a food releases the highest percentage of dopamine to the brain â sometimes as much as 70% of the total dopamine released during a meal. With every bite after, less and less dopamine is released, until that third scoop of ice cream could probably be replaced with celery pulp and you wouldnât be getting any more of a happy kick.
To make matters worse, frequent large amounts of sugar cause the taste buds to develop a resistance to stimulation. It takes more and more sugar to get the same amount of dopamine. Sort of like crack cocaine! So keep the quantity small, youâre saving the calories but still getting almost as much sweet brain happiness. Remember, sweets are not going anywhere, so you don’t have to eat them every time you crave them.
3. Donât feel Guilty.
This is important. The punish/reward system is the trademark of the compulsive eater. Eating candy causes feelings of guilt, which leads to extreme dieting /self-loathing/fasting. Fasting leads to intense cravings, this leads to binge eating more candy, which leads back to guilt. You know the cycle, donât fall prey. Weâve already established that candy isnât a food. Treat it like a movie, a walk on the beach, a heated chess game, a root canal at the dentistâs. You know, the fun things in life. Candy costs a bit of calories the way movies cost money, beach walks cost time, and heated chess games cost relationships and chess shaped bruise marks. Trips to the dentist, of course, have no cost. We don’t espouse “cheating”, but nobody is perfect - an indulgence now and then is part of a healthy, happy life. If you are going to cheat, do it rarely and do it well.
The flip side of guilt is false security. This comes in the form of sugar free candies. Sugar free candies are a common ground for people who love sweets but donât want to feel guilty. However, sugar free candies are still candies. They donât do anything for hunger, and they often still contain high amounts of empty calories. Sugar free candies arenât healthy (thereâs no nutritional value going on), they are simply less unhealthy than sugar-filled candies. And keep in mind again: less dopamine fun with sugar free candies.
4. Chocolate is Better.
Chocolate is the most craved food in the world. And thereâs a reason. It is filled with a chemical called phenylethylamine. Phenylethylamine is found to trigger a feeling similar to âfalling in love.â
Cocoa also contains potent antioxidants called phenols. This is the same good stuff found in red wine. But before you start snarfing Hersheyâs kisses, be warned that the milk and other chemicals in milk chocolate negate many of the powerful antioxidant effects of cocoa. So, stick with the dark stuff.
5. Get the Best
Youâd have to be a millionaire to get fat off of Godiva chocolates. One rose petal champagne-and-almond paste dark ganache might cost as much as three bags of Skittles, but youâll enjoy it more.
Hereâs some of the worldâs most expensive chocolates.
Further reading:
How to Eat More Chocolate and Drink More Wine Every Day
It’s interesting that the more sugar we eat, the more we need to have the same dopamine response. I guess that makes sense.
Why is their chocolate more expensive? The higher the price, the better it tastes? $2,600 a pound? I’d be afraid to eat it.
I saw a chocolate scam recently…it was some trendy awful name that a bunch of expensive marketers obviously came up with…like Luno or Nuba or something…and it was going for 2 grand a box at Neiman Marcus…turns out it was regular old processed cocoa product, the pallet stuff, not even real pure cocoa, and not even a real chocolate artisan..but it was in a trendy silver box and high priced, so hey, it must be good!
“Candy is great, right? Because we know itâs bad.”
This line is great. I recently read that females find “bad boys” attractive because adrenaline (present in the female when confronted with said bad boy) mixed with some degree of attraction can result in extreme sex appeal. I don’t know if this is really relevant (I have never wanted to have sex with chocolate), but there may something to the notion that candy tastes better if you think it is bad for you. Come to think of it, I am getting all hot and bothered just thinking about candy. Phew!!
If I eat some candy I don’t consider it cheating because I’m not on a diet. It’s just what I ate that day. A diet to me is a temporary plan to lose weight. The way I eat is forever. I normally eat extremely healthy foods. That is my day to day meal plan. Sometimes I eat a cookie or a piece of cake and I don’t feel bad because 90% of the time I eat really well.
“Go for the best”: that’s exactly what I do. No low-cost, low-taste chocolate/candy ever enter my apartment nowadays. If I am to eat such a food, I want it to be darn tasty, not some crappy 50 cents stuff that will only leave some pasty, sugary aftertaste in my mouth.
Cute Cookie Jar,He He!(Love The Smiley Face)
I, For One, Do Indeed Eat 70-85% Dark Chocolate
And Enjoy It. I Don’t Feel Like This Is A Cheat
Because I Eat A Piece Once A Week.
It’s My “TR-eat”, NOT My “CH-eat”!
Amen, Mel. It’s not cheating - it’s a choice. It’s when we think of it as bad, or cheating, that it takes its psychic toll. But it is important to be thoughtful and aware about how, when, and why we choose to eat less healthful foods.
When things get hectic at my office, I’ve run out from time to time to Godiva and picked up some dark chocolate truffles for my assistants and female co-workers. The reaction/response this creates is overwhelming. Everyone seems to be in upper spirits, like they are in love or had a passionate lovemaking session. All that for under $25
Tatsujin, can you pass that idea on to my boss?
(But I’m sure your male coworkers would appreciate the treat, too!)
Jaime,
Just give me his/her name
Doesn’t seem to work as well for the male co-workers for some reason. They are not as passionate
I had heard that eating chocolate is like falling in love. That is so interesting, I did not know what the name of the chemical was. Very nice read!!
I can always bribe my husband with chocolate.
Great comments, everyone - thanks. Calling this “cheating” is probably the wrong approach. As we always say, it’s about lifestyle, not dieting. I like occasional dark chocolate myself.
[...] Mark’s Daily Apple we have this post about how to cheat on your diet. It sounds silly but I actually found it very useful. I love candy [...]
It’s okay to give into cravings. In fact, it’s good to feed those those cravings, AS LONG AS YOU DON’T OVER DO IT! For example, I love chocolate as well. So, I take out (10) M&M Dark Chocolate Peanut M&Ms and cloase the bag. Since I know I’m only eating (10) of them, I eat them slowly and really enjoy them. My craving is satisfied with minimal calorie intake. And since it’s peanuts, I get some protein to boot. Try it sometime in the afternoon. Mmmmmmmmm Good!
Alan, you’re right on portion control, but I’d recommend eating real nuts (rather than peanut candies or peanuts) and a little dark chocolate. Much healthier with good fats and antioxidants.
[...] than your calories exerted. (Editorâs note: to both lose weight and maintain good health, the type of calories you consume also [...]
[...] Boosts mood - MSNBC reported that caffeine and other chemicals in dark chocolate can improve your mood and ease [...]
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Like a lot of women I love my chocolate, but as I’ve grown older I now eschew things like Mars and Snickers in favour of posh chocs. My favourites are from Hotel Chocolat (www.hotelchocolat.co.uk) which are just the best chocolates I’ve ever tasted. These are gourmet chocs - not something to wolf down mindlessly whilst watching reality TV shows.
I don’t indulge often, and can’t afford to at those prices, but as a treat they are hard to beat.
[...] may enhance brain function to help fight sleep deprivation, fatigue, and the effects of ageing. 3. Boosts mood - MSNBC reported that caffeine and other chemicals in dark chocolate can improve your mood and ease [...]
Also, people should know that it’s better to indulge in sweets soon after an intense workout. That way some of those carbs may be more likely to end up as muscle glycogen.
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[...] says chocolate contains chemicals that are linked to relaxation, intoxication, and pleasure. Markâs Daily Apple wrote that the chemical phenylethylamine in chocolate has been found to trigger feelings similar to [...]