Researchers quizzed more than 300 women to find out why we are more likely to give in to cake in the afternoon. Photo / Getty
We might start with good intentions but our willpower to resist eating cake weakens as the day goes on, scientists have found.
In the morning, we are more likely to associate cake and other less healthy food such as crisps, burgers and pizza with negative experiences such as sickness, pain,
abuse fear and even death.
But by the afternoon, as our resistance slackens and our minds view 'junk food' in the same way as we see positive things such as rainbows and holidays.
Researchers from Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, and Liverpool University carried out a psychological experiment called an 'implicit association test' on 304 women aged 17-25.
Every hour from midday, groups were shown images and words which they had to react to with either positive or negative scores. The words included death, pain and abuse as well as holidays, rainbows, peace and love.
