Uncovering the Surprising Health Benefits of Great British Bake Off Desserts
Unveiling the secrets behind the delectable desserts from The Great British Bake Off! Discover surprising findings as scientists dissect the ingredients in these beloved holiday treats A delightful blend of lighthearted science and a rich culinary tradition
Fans of "The Great British Bake Off" will be delighted to learn that according to new research, many of the show's famous holiday desserts have ingredients that are beneficial for your health. The authors admit that the research was done for fun.
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Lead author Joshua Wallach, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Emory University in Atlanta, described the study as rigorous despite some silly components. For instance, a recipe for stollen from Paul Hollywood, a judge on "The Great British Baking Show," includes healthy ingredients like almonds, milk, and dried fruits that research has linked to a reduced risk of disease and death.
The authors described the dessert as essentially a fruit salad with nuts, lacking eggs, butter, and sugar. They also noted that Ravs "frozen" fantasy cake contained healthy ingredients like almonds and passion fruit, potentially decreasing the risk of death or disease. The study did not consider the potential amount of butter, sugar, and refined flours in the cake.
Dr. David Katz, a specialist in preventive and lifestyle medicine and the founder of the nonprofit True Health Initiative, a global coalition of experts dedicated to evidence-based lifestyle medicine, commented on the study, stating, "If there is any science here, it is science in the service of cheeky fun." He further emphasized that the analysis did not consider the net effects of the desserts and only looked at the isolated effects of ingredients in a way that may not be practical in real life. Katz suggested taking the findings with caution, saying, "So, I would take this science with a grain of, well, something salutary!"
Desserts with fruit in them were considered in the healthy category, according to the study.
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The authors acknowledge that they failed to consider the quantity of an ingredient: "We treated any recipe with fruit, even if it only contained a single berry, as having the same protective effect as the harmful effect of butter," they explained in their research.
Taking the trouble to weigh the amount of an ingredient for its potential harm or benefit "would have been informative, but less fun," they wrote.
Lighthearted science
The study was released in the festive Christmas edition of The BMJ, renowned for its accurate yet whimsical, lighthearted articles and studies. Wallach and his team tailored their research specifically for this issue.
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Wallach explained that the complexities of nutrition research often focus on individual foods rather than a complete diet. He stated that conducting a gold-standard randomized clinical trial, in which participants would have to eat only specific foods and exclude others, poses significant challenges for researchers.
This paper emphasizes the potential conflicting effects of individual ingredients when combined in recipes, ultimately highlighting the limited knowledge we have about their overall impact. But in the end, all we really care about is enjoying a slice of Christmas dessert, right?
To conduct their analysis, Wallach and his team collected recipes for various baked goods from "The Great British Bake Off" website and categorized the ingredients according to 17 different food groups studied by nutritionists.
The study revealed that nuts, fruit, and coffee showed the strongest links to lower risks of death and disease, while alcohol was identified as the primary contributor to harmful effects.
Judge Prue Leith's chocolate yule log contains uncooked cream liqueur, which puts it in the naughty category, according to the study.
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Judge Prue Leith's love for "boozy bakes" resulted in many of her desserts being considered indulgent, Wallach noted. For instance, the uncooked cream liqueur in Leith's chocolate yule log was found to potentially increase the risk of developing various health issues such as colon, gastric, and liver cancer, as well as gout and atrial fibrillation, which goes against the festive spirit.
Wallach mentioned that the show frequently teases Prue for openly expressing her fondness for boozy bakes. Contestants often try to impress her by adding extra alcohol into their desserts.
"In reality, when baking with alcohol, most of it actually gets baked off," Wallach noted. "Regardless, it was an ideal moment for us to humorously point out the potentially harmful effects of alcohol on various health outcomes to Prue."
For centuries, desserts have been essential in Christmas festivities, as noted by Wallach and his colleagues. In medieval England, the Roman Catholic Church mandated the making of a pudding on the Sunday about four weeks before Christmas, according to the study.
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According to the study, the puddings were similar to nutritious stews, packed with fiber, protein, vitamins, and minerals. They contained ingredients such as beef, carrots, eggs, figs, grains, mutton, nuts, prunes, raisins, and spices.
Nowadays, holiday desserts are frequently loaded with saturated fats, artificial sugars, and highly processed, refined flours that have been associated with various chronic conditions including diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
Nevertheless, according to Wallach, unless you consume an entire dessert in one sitting, the quantity of one or two unhealthy ingredients that you consume during the holidays is likely to be insignificant.
"We're having a bit of fun with this to highlight the Look. If you can overlook the scientific concerns, you can have your Christmas cake and eat it, too," he said. "But the key is to enjoy everything in moderation."
