The Benefits of Treating Yourself to Desserts

If you indulge in chocolate cakes with ice cream, delicious cupcakes, chocolate-filled croissants and more, is it good for you?

Contrary to popular belief, treating yourself to such sweet items may not all be entirely bad for you. In fact, here are some of the health benefits of caving into your sweet temptations.

Do you love desserts such as these cupcakes?

1) Nutrients

Low carbohydrate diets such as Atkins are quite popular nowadays. However, carbohydrates are an important source of fuel for the body to function effectively – and these are abundant in cakes and other sweet items. Carbohydrates – primary the simple sugars that are found in cakes, ice creams and chocolate – are especially important for active individuals who do a lot of exercise such as running or cycling. In fact, some of these sweet foods, such as cakes, cookies and ice creams, are commonly available after many running events.

Like green tea, blueberries also contain plenty of antioxidants.

And at the same time, it is not only about the carbohydrate content in the sweet items. Depending on the type of dessert that you choose, they may also contain vitamins, antioxidants and fibre. For example, that scoop of green tea ice cream has nutritious antioxidants – which can help to ward off cancer. The reason is that green tea contains antioxidants. Also, apple pies are stuffed with vitamins and minerals from the apples used to prepare them.

2) Prevents weight gain

Eating desserts may help to prevent weight gain too. This is because if you go cold turkey on desserts completely, your body will start to crave for them, and you will end up binging as soon as you get your hands on them. The binges will happen more often and more frequently and as a result, you will end up gaining weight.

But on the other hand, if you allow yourself to a small helping of the sinful, sugary stuff on a regular basis, then it will help to satisfy your sweet cravings, and so you are more likely to practise portion control rather than binging on them, when you do eat them.

3) Gives you a chance to eat fruits

Fruits are good for you. We all know that. But many of us probably do not get enough fruits into our daily diet.

But if you turn your fruits into a dessert, this may tempt you to eat more servings of fruits. For example, how does a delicious apple pie sound, served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream? Or how about a scrumptious helping of strawberries coated in a rich chocolate caramel dip? I am sure that these may be much more tempting than eating an apple or a banana by itself. Yes, there are so many possibilities of how you can incorporate fruits into your diet.

Incorporating fruits into your desserts are also a good way to increase your daily fruit intake.

4) Makes you happier

It is true that eating dessert regularly can make you a happier person. This is because the high levels of carbohydrates continued in sweet dessert foods, produce the chemical serotonin, which is responsible for improving the body’s overall emotional well-being – and at the same time, reducing the amount of stress felt by the body. After all, the word stressed – when spelt backwards – isn’t desserts – for nothing.