ESPE Yearbook of Paediatric Endocrinology

Brief Summary: Research published in the Christmas issue of The BMJ suggests that Christmas desserts from the television show, “The Great British Bake Off”, are more likely to feature ingredients associated with a reduced risk of death or disease, rather than those that increase it.

Comment: Do not miss this article from the Christmas edition of The BMJ! The Great British Bake Off is the ultimate baking competition where passionate amateur bakers compete to be crowned the UK’s Best Amateur Baker. The series showcases the challenges faced by competitors, young and old, from every background and every corner of Britain, as they strive to prove their baking prowess. Their recipes are published on the website.

There have long been concerns that the ingredients used to make modern Christmas desserts (eg, butter and sugar) are unhealthy. These authors evaluated the potential health benefits and harms of the ingredients used in various Christmas desserts. Instead of randomly selecting Christmas dessert recipes from cookbooks, all “Christmas” recipes listed on the official Great British Bake Off website were recorded, then categorised into 17 ingredient groups mostly likely to be evaluated in umbrella reviews. These included: alcohol; butter; chocolate; cheese and yogurt; coffee; eggs; food colouring, flavourings, and extracts; fruit; milk; nuts etc.

The authors conducted a literature search for umbrella reviews. They identified 46 umbrella reviews that included 363 unique associations between ingredients listed in the Christmas dessert recipes and risk of death or any disease. Overall, 41% of the summary associations between ingredient groups and the risk of death or disease were statistically significant. Of these, 74% suggested that the ingredient groups were associated with reduced risk of death or disease. The most common ingredient groups associated with reduced risk of death or disease were fruit, coffee and nuts. The 26% ingredient groups associated with increased death included alcohol and sugar.

The authors conclude that “this Christmas, if concerns about the limitations of observational nutrition research can be set aside, we are pleased to report that everyone can have their cake and eat it too.”