Why Science Says You Should Add Chocolate To Your Breakfast Menu
So you now have a reason to add chocolate cake to your restaurant’s breakfast or brunch menu – your chocolate-loving customers will rejoice!
The results of a study by Syracuse University that were published in early 2016 showed that eating dark chocolate boosts our brain power, as the participants who indulged at least once a week or more performed considerably better in a series of cognitive tests than those who ate it less, or not at all.
These findings have been combined with those of a previous study conducted by Tel Aviv University, which concluded that chocolate cake is best consumed in the morning because the metabolism is most active after we wake up, giving our bodies the full day to burn off calories.
In addition to this, eating a little chocolate at breakfast time (combined with protein and carbohydrates) guarded against sugar cravings throughout the rest of the day – participants in the study who ate a 600-calorie breakfast that included chocolate pudding lost on average 37 pounds more over 32 weeks than the participants who ate only a 300-calorie breakfast, without any of the sweet stuff!
Embrace the ‘chocolate for breakfast’ trend for 2017
So if the science is to be believed, eating chocolate for breakfast not only prepares us mentally for the challenges of a working day (or kick-starts our weekend), but also can facilitate weight loss and curb over-eating of sweet foods.
It’s these exciting scientific findings that inspired culinary trend expert (and likely chocolate lover) Liz Moskow of Sterling-Rice Group to predict that chocolate for breakfast would be one of 2017’s biggest food trends, which no doubt will excite breakfast and chocolate fans alike.
Of course, just eating a huge slab of sugary, fatty chocolate gateau for breakfast wouldn’t be good for anyone. But Liz believes that more and more restaurants will introduce a ‘breakfast dessert’ menu, offering small sweet treats as a post-breakfast amuse-bouche to help curb those cravings early in the day, and of course make breakfast and brunch even more exciting!
There are plenty of healthy (or healthier) ways to incorporate chocolate into your restaurant breakfast menu that will be satiating to both hunger, and sweet tooth cravings. It could be as simple as adding dark chocolate chips to pancakes, bowls of porridge and breakfast bakes such as muffins, or you could unabashedly hop onto the ‘dessert for breakfast’ trend and offer bite-sized chocolatey puddings to round off the meal. A mini chocolate cake or dinky dark chocolate pudding would be the perfect accompaniment to morning coffee, and is sure to pique your customers’ interest!
Even better, you could combine the chocolate for breakfast trend with one of the biggest trends of 2016: protein-packed meals. Dark chocolate chip-studded protein breakfast bars and balls, as well as chocolatey protein pancakes, waffles and shakes will keep both crowds happy and offer you plenty of opportunities to experiment.
Have you already taken on the chocolate for breakfast trend, and how are your customers responding? How do you plan to add more chocolate to your breakfast or brunch menu in 2017, or will you be leaving it for later in the day? We’d love to hear from you. Leave us a comment below or send us a tweet at @BunzlLockhart to share your thoughts on this tempting trend!
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