Sweet treats are actually good for you, study finds
Treating yourself to a slice of cake or the odd biscuit may lower your risk of a heart attack and stroke, a study suggests.
Having a sweet tooth and eating goodies like pastries, chocolate and sweets twice a day was linked to a 25 per cent lower risk of stroke and a 22 per cent lower chance of a heart attack.
Now, obviously, eating loss of them and being the size of a barrage balloon is not going to reduce risks. But a bit of fancy seems to do so.
The scientists called for future studies to investigate the potential biological mechanism underpinning what may make sweet treats good for you. The study found a correlation but not causation.
Data show that people consuming more than 14 servings of sweet treats a week, a rate of two a day, had a 25 per cent lower risk of ischaemic strokes, a 24 per cent lower risk of hemorrhagic stroke, a 22 per cent lower risk of heart attack, a 30 per cent lower risk of heart failure, a 27 per cent lower risk of aortic stenosis, a 17 per cent lower risk of atrial fibrillation, and a half the risk of abdominal aortic aneurysm.
One possible explanation – not that it’s right, but – if you eat this much cake but do not blow up like a barrage balloon therefore you’re doing some exercise which is good for your heart health….
Several possibilities. Some of the ailments mentioned are intriguing though.. Abdominal aortic aneurisms are pretty rare.
But yeah… Who’da thunk that occasional refuelling ensuring that glucose availability remains stable for two of the big energy users ( you reckon blood vessels as a separate organ from the heart. And blood vessels are very much not “inert” tissue.. ) would have long-term effects on their continued proper operation.
Which includes renewing themselves continuously and repairing wear and tear on the go, literally under pressure…
Besides the obvious letting yourself silting up by overindulging and the inevitable result of that, the other extreme end is diabetes, with its well-documented cardiovascular complications.
Maybe the stress caused by self-punishments is worse than the foods. Perhaps if you do enough exercise you don’t have to worry too much about what you eat.
It’s only pleb food these people go on about. When middle class people eat cakes, like those expensive cup cakes that seem to be made of some sort of dense building material, there isn’t a problem.
Being happy and contented is probably good for you.
Maybe a life without little pleasures such as the odd slice of cake is so depressing and grueling that the body inflicts strokes and heart attacks out of sheer desperation
A little of what you fancy does you good, My Granny knew this, and her Granny before her, and etc…
There’s truth in a lot of the old sayings. I guess that’s why they became old.
The quoted study, like *all* other health studies with human subjects, will be of 20-40 college age males, probably moderately physically active.
In other words, it will not be nearly large enough to support any conclusions at all, let alone the conclusions reported by the media.
“Health science” isn’t anything of the sort.
M
Well, yes.
In the same fashion, 95% of psychological research is undertaken on US university undergraduates.
I suggest that putting jam in your porridge demands instant expulsion from the country.
The study on almost 70,000 Swedes tracked sugar intake via questionnaires: no “study” that relies on uncheckable questionnaire responses is worth a moment of your time.
Mind you, I hope the buggers are right even if by fluke. Their claims appeal to my belief that anyone over the age of about twelve who drinks lots of brown sugar water must be a chump with a child-like palate.
Its obvious – those who have the self control to eat such ‘naughty but nice’ things in strict moderation are the sort of people who make other good decisions, such as exercising, managing their weight, not over drinking, not smoking, not taking drugs etc etc etc.
An occasional (averaging up to two a day) nibble can be a stress-reliever, which will reduce heart-attacks and strokes by more than the minimal increase in sugar/cholestrol will increase them.
Lots of cake/biscuits/sweets will make one fat, a small quantity will have a small impact on weight/cholestrol, so its NET effect can be good.
Abdominal aortic aneurisms are pretty rare.
They can run in families. My dad had his spotted in his 60s and a stent put in (in the early days, when it was almost an experimental procedure); his brother’s was never spotted and he dropped dead at 70. FWIW my dad’s consultant when offering him the option of a stent told him that AAA was quite a good way to go – swift and relatively painless. I and my two brothers have had ultrasound scans, but none of us have a problem, thankfully.
@dearieme – “The study on almost 70,000 Swedes tracked sugar intake via questionnaires: no “study” that relies on uncheckable questionnaire responses is worth a moment of your time.”
Indeed. It’s no more than a suggestion of where to look when doing better quality research. In this particular case, maybe those who reported consuming more sugar were merely more truthful, and maybe facing up to reality has a survival benefit in contrast to permitting self-deception.