Eating Cake is Good for You!

A few months ago, my friend and neighbour, the lovely S,  gave me a little pink fridge magnet which says 'Eat cake - it's good for you'. It's a great little thing; the problem is that I have been following its advice a bit too enthusiastically....

I have been baking AND eating cakes. It would be OK if I just baked them but, once out of the oven, that cake smell is irresistible.

I do love cake - not the creamy sickly kind but the substantial nutty fruity kind. There is something very pleasurable and very comforting about eating homemade cake. It's as if it made life taste better.  Eating cake is good for you in many ways, and so is baking them. There is something magical about mixing all those ingredients and getting a delicious treat at the end of it. The cake-making process itself is pleasurable. All that mixing, whirring, whipping and folding is good for the soul.

It's a shame that we have come to regard cake as 'bad' or 'naughty' food, even if its caloric content encourages weight gain. I have noticed how hard it is for me to eat cake and not feel a tinge of guilt, as if feeling guilty somehow burnt calories! Guilt is not a useful feeling to me unless it pricks my conscience into taking action. Guilt would be useful if it stopped me from eating the piece of cake in the first place but, once in my mouth, guilt only interferes with my pleasure and probably with my digestion also.

So I have decided to no longer feel guilty when I eat one of the brownies I have just baked 'for my husband'. I honour the fact that I love those brownies too and that there are plenty left for him to enjoy. Since I made my decision to reject guilt, I have observed that I tend to eat less cake, or fewer brownies, than I used to - as if allowing myself the full enjoyment of my taste buds 'fed' me more and 'fed' me better. One piece is enough where two or three were needed before.

I have read many times that if we focus our attention on our food, we tend to get better nutritional value out of our meals and we tend to eat less. That is true for me, but I have only just realised that the quality of that attention matters too. Focusing is important and so is what I am focusing through. It's a bit like my throwing light on something and making sure the lens on my torch is clean.

I now know that guilt was my dirty lens.

Having given my lens a good clean, I can definitely state that S's little fridge magnet is right: eating cake is good for you :0)