AIBU to think cake is a perfectly good lunch

[Ephiny]

I think this might be my first AIBU.

Basically I'm too lazy to make a packed lunch most days, and anyway most options aren't very appealing. The cafe at work has various sandwiches/wraps and salads, but they aren't great unless you get them on the first day (they sit for 2-3 days) and anyway I'm picky about my food - no meat/fish, no mayonnaise or dressings, no onion, various other things. I usually can't find anything I like and end up just getting a coffee and whatever cake I fancy.

I don't think this is too bad. The coffee is usually a latte, which means protein and calcium, and quite filling. If the cake is a flapjack or something, that's oats for fibre, if it's a muffin with fruit in that's 'healthy'...if it's a pastry, well, I don't know, there's sometimes apple or something in it :) AIBU to think this is actually a perfectly fine lunch, and not less proper or healthy than what other people have just because it's sweet?

But I am embarrassed to tell anyone in real life that this is how I eat, and if I have to I pretend the cake is for dessert not my actual lunch. AIBU?

[Latara]

& Apple Pie contains apples. Fruit cake has dried fruit in, cherry cake... etc. There. Cake is healthy.

[Latara]

YANBU if it's Carrot Cake - Carrots are healthy veggies after all.

[SCOTCHandWRY]

SonofArabia - Vodka and tequila have no carbs

Mrshoarder, of course 250 cals is not a meal but it's a lot of calories to be drinking, along with your lunch, when the body doesn't really get those "full up" signals very well from liquid calories - but 250cals of protein/fat based food would not spike and crash your blood sugar in the same way as 250cals of liquid, fast to digest food such as a latte, the composition of the calories matters IMO.

Note that since man developed agriculture the majority of our food has been carbohydrates, mostly in the form of grains.

YY, and that has been a bad thing for the health of humans, especially as grain foods are now (since WW2) pushed at us as being particularly nutritious when they actually have fewer nutrients than the things they have displaced from our diets (leafy veg, fish/seafood and meat all have more nutrients per calorie than grain foods).

[Bonsoir]

Cake is a perfectly good lunch providing you don't do this more than once a fortnight! You should be eating protein at lunchtime.

[Misty9]

Hmm. Don't like coffee and can't eat most cakes (wheat intolerant) but if no sugar spikes/crashes then don't see why not. Though caffeine isn't a very friendly substance for our brains...

Was wondering what is a balanced lunch then? A few posters sound quite knowledgable and I'm genuinely interested :)

[CleansLate]

Cake is a perfectly good lunch.

But it's not a nutritious lunch.

So if you are thinking "everything else is ergh, I really like my daily flapjack and coffee", and eating well for the rest of the day, or if you are thinking "fuck it I just like cake" (this is me), then fine.

I ate cake for lunch all October as we have moved near an incredible cake shop and I was working my way through their stock. It was lovely.

[Marzipanface]

It depends what else you eat during the day. If you eat a balanced breakfast and dinner then cake for lunch is prob not going to cause you much of an issue.

If you eat bollocks for breakfast and dinner as well then YABU to try and convince us that a large cake full of sugar and fats is healthy.

[Ragwort]

I think its absolutely fine as the rest of your meals are perfectly well balanced; to be honest most people (including me) eat far too much - much better to just have a cake and coffee for lunch rather than a sandwich plus cake and coffee .

I enjoyed a doughnut for breakfast this morning.

[ATourchOfInsanity]

I recently made a cake with dates and figs my DD suddenly refused to eat. Not only will she eat them now, but I felt I was getting a few bits of my 5 a day with my tea :)
I think it is the sugar content people will highlight, but then sarnies usually have a lot of salt, so it's possibly much of a muchness?
I'd say munch away personally, YANBU :)

[SonOfAradia]

I'm also hoping that eating more saturated fats will increase my cholesterol levels, as they're really low. Apparently, though, there's no connection between eating fats and cholesterol, so it may be a faint hope. People with low cholesterol die earlier than those with high, eeep.

[GreenEggsAndNichts]

It's not a great lunch, however, loads of lunches aren't great. It's rare to see someone eating a balanced meal at lunch, imo. A ham sandwich with crisps, someone probably thinks that's a decent lunch. (not judging- I'd eat it for lunch happily!)

On a related note, I think it's better to just get a piece of cake for lunch if all you're wanting is cake, rather than to eat more food beforehand just so you can say "hey, I ate lunch, now I can have the cake."

[MrsHoarder]

SCOTCH do you really think a meal is 250 calories? Maybe a very light lunch between a cooked breakfast and a big dinner, but I'd be ravenous after that.

My food thing is to never try to trick my body that its getting more calories than I actually put in. So always full fat dairy, not lean meats unless its a steak sandwich and eat until I'm full. Aside from biscuit binges which are usually when DS is being difficult and I'm aware are an unhealthy coping mechanism (just the best available option), my diet is fairly good and I'm a healthy weight. The low GI thing is the current fad, I'm yet to be convinced as to its scientific merit.

Note that since man developed agriculture the majority of our food has been carbohydrates, mostly in the form of grains.

[SonOfAradia]

eat a LOT less carbohydrate, especially grains and added sugar, and replace that carbohydrate with natural fat and protein^

I'm trying to do just that at the moment.

Just a shame that beer is co carbohydrat-y

[YouOldSlag]

Your diet sounds pretty healthy to me OP. Go ahead and enjoy your flapjack!

[SCOTCHandWRY]

Yum SCOTCHandWRY, I always have full-fat everything as it tastes so much better. In addition, countries that have high-saturated fat diets have less heart disease, so it's pretty protective, too!

Sonof arabia, yes, you are right, but it's more complex than just "eat more fat", the real message is "eat a LOT less carbohydrate, especially grains and added sugar, and replace that carbohydrate with natural fat and protein".

The closer any food is to the natural state it grows in, the healthier it is. Cake may taste fabulous but it is in no way a natural food - doesn't matter if it's organic or free range or home made or whatever, it is a big slice of very processed carbohydrate (all flours are very processed, very high GI), sad but true. As a very occasional treat food - ok, it's not going to kill you, but "treat" should mean just that, a treat, not an every day thing, not even an every week thing!

[Ephiny]

Hmm, maybe I should try to make the effort to make a packed lunch some days at least :)

I probably do eat a lot of carbs. It's difficult not to if you're vegetarian tbh. I have granola with dried fruit and soya milk for breakfast, and homemade veg. soup with bread and cheese or hummous or something in the evening, and usually have fruit as a snack when I get home from work. I do eat more 'proper' cooked meals at the weekend.

I don't really bother about low-carb, low-fat, counting calories etc as a rule.

[FredFredGeorge]

MariaMandarin certainly you need dietary fiber - A flapjack would likely contain as much or more than a typical white bread sandwich that many people would say is healthy.

[SCOTCHandWRY]

Hobitt... I did say a medium, not a small latte, they are around 250 calories (with no sugar or cream added), I'd say from my extensive coffee shop queuing experience, most people order a medium... and I think generally people don't realise how high the calorie count is (I'm of the opinion that sugary/milky drinks are not a good choice because they don't seen to register on the brain as "food").

[SonOfAradia]

Sounds nice - I'll often have a piece of cake and coffee for lunch, but then I do have a more balanced breakfast and dinner.

filter coffee with cream (yes cream!)

Yum SCOTCHandWRY, I always have full-fat everything as it tastes so much better. In addition, countries that have high-saturated fat diets have less heart disease, so it's pretty protective, too!

[MariaMandarin]

With fruit and veg though, isn't all the roughage or fibre meant to be good for you as well as just the vitamin content? I thought that was why you can't just have a gallon of juice and call it your 5 a day.

The cake for lunch every day just sounds wrong. But I do it too sometimes and I don't worry about it. If you were having that for pudding after something else I don't think many people would say you were doing anything wrong.

[StuntGirl]

Eat whatever you like but nutritionally speaking there are many more balanced options than cake and coffee. YANBU to eat cake but YABU to try and convince yourself you're covering all the nutritional bases

[Mominatrix]

Your latte and flapjack lunch is not ideal, but needs to judged in light of your diet for the day. If you have a very sensible and balanced breakfast and dinner, no harm in that kind of lunch. Moderation and all that. Reminds me of the study which showed that those people who had a piece of cake for breakfast ended up losing more weight during the study period than those who had a more abstemious breakfast. Probably because having a bit of the not ideally healthy prevents us from trying to fill a craving void?

Many of the options available at sandwich places are not much better nutritionally speaking, but just have the thin veneer of being healthier.

To show solidarity, I'll share my lunch - a nice slice of chocolate cake and a large cup of milky tea . Am very content.

[Hobbitation]

Fruit sugar is better, if you are eating it in fruit, as it is balanced by the other nutritional items in the fruit. It's meant to have natural sugars in it. It's when you are adding sugar to something or it contains added sugar that your have to be careful.

So adding fruit sugar to something doesn't make it better than adding cane sugar, but dried fruit in small amounts or fresh fruit or anything containing naturally occurring sugars which also have other nutritional value is better than eating sugar out of the packet.

[YouOldSlag]

LOL at "stuffed with". Greedy old me!

[YouOldSlag]

I know that Feu, I was firstly taking issue with the comment about reduced sugar fruit cake stuffed with raisins and sultanas, and then with the view that fruit sugar is better than any other kind.

I just like fruit cake and take the sugar out because the fruit is sweet enough! There is sugar in so many things, even a sugar free carb meal spikes your sugar levels.

I'm not remotely anti sugar and do nothing to moderate my intake, but I do use less sugar in a cake if there is icing or fruit involved as it is sweet enough. Just a taste thing. not a health thing. .