If you don't want to eat the cake, don't eat the cake.

If you're that weak that you eat the cake even though you don't want to eat the cake, that's on you.

We can't just kill what is just a bit of fun because some people want to project blame on others.

Passive smoking is one thing that we can all agree is bad. However, there is no such thing as passive eating!

Yeah, to compare it with passive smoking is insulting, many of us spent time as kids (and there are many that sadly still do!) in places with smokers, with no choice.

Someone bringing in a cake isn't in the same ballpark.

I understand the idea behind the line of thinking - peer pressure, cake, unhealthy; but it's simple - have some restraint. Unless you're literally being bullied - but that's a serious work environment issue, not the fault of the cake.

There are lots of cakes I simply won't eat because I don't like anything sickly sweet or too fatty. But it's also true of my nephew who has always preferred fruit over chocolate.

I, for one, am very pleased to hear that you won't eat your nephew.

Add to this the sense of camerarderie that is fostered by sharing and communal dining (yes, this is measurable) and that includes people who don't particularly like cake like me. That's less cortisoid and other inflammatory hormones for the price of some calories, which can easily be burnt off by an extra few minutes walking,

But this shouldn't be about cake but about general eating habits: the sheer volume of ready meals in supermarkets is proof of this. Making simple and reasonably healthy meals isn't that hard but too many people have either never learnt or have forgotten.

I don't know about this. We're social creatures: refuse the doughnut / drink, feel like a party pooper and be branded as a non-participant for wanting to look after yourself.

When I was seriously dieting to get properly the right weight and be all healthy and exercise and stuff, I'd turn down the cake, but its not just turning down the cake, there was always cajoling to eat the cake "Oh go on, its just a small bit of cake" and more. It got to the point where if I knew there was birthday cake, I'd go take a ten minute break outside to avoid it. In big departments, cake is pretty frequent - it would be a weird week if there was not cake at least twice a week when we were all in-office, and now that we all go in on one day, there is always donuts and coffee at 11, cake in the afternoon.

Its cruel, because if you're dieting, its not that you don't want to eat the cake. You desperately want to eat that fucker, but willpower to achieve your goals is stopping you. Willpower is the only thing that a diet works on, once you break that willpower you're much more likely to cheat again - so encouraging people to break their willpower is such a dickish move.

Having said all that, I have no problem people bringing cakes in to work and the like. Please don't try to encourage people to eat it though, or shame them for not eating it. Don't be that forced frivolity person who tries to shame non-participants.

Your go to excuse for avoiding cake, doughnuts etc. is to say you have health issues that prevent you eating them. Colleagues may then assume something like type 2 diabetes, but ideally will be polite & not enquire further, and if they do just politely say you don't want to discuss personal health issues (whereas in reality your health reason is just you don't want to be eating food that will help make you fat / fatter, is not good for your arteries, is encouraging damage to your teeth* etc...or if its doughnuts & you're me just that you find them such a vile combo of sugary fat flavours that trying to eat one would make you puke )

* "Brits actually have better teeth than Americans thanks to free healthcare"

Bit of a sore point on dentistry, in huge areas of the country nigh on impossible to get on the list of a NHS ("free / cheap dentist") & so people stuck with horrendously expensive private dentistry (or just avoid dentists to save cash)

Dieting really is cruel if you're addicted to overeating. You have to both eat AND be in control of your addiction 24/7. Smokers and drinkers ultimately have the option to go cold turkey, but you can't just "give up" food.

How many recovering alcoholics would manage to stay sober if they had to have a drink each day, I wonder?

I think author of this article wants to eat a cake.

Go on. Open Deliveroo and get a big one.

Nobody is watching.

Do you think that the UK food watchdog is hoping that millions of people are going to book deliveries of cake to their office just to spite them?

I'm actually not that into cake, my weaknesses are beer and burgers. I ordered one after writing this. I shouldn't have because wife came home famished and not up for cooking so I skipped dinner and she had a burger too. Deliveroo is a slippery slope.

so no one offers her cake and biscuits in her office. no surprise there then.

Just because they're there doesn't mean you have to partake.

What about company's leaving fruit bowls out for free pickings in a warm environments with lots of coughing and sneezing around. In this climate that's a def nono. but no mention of that

Sounds like a sore loser to me. maybe worry about dodgy restaurants and the supply of goods in 3rd rate convenience shops.

I work in a school, virtually every day is some staff member's birthday, and traditionally they bring in cake/biscuits/fruit. If they tried to stop that, there would be a riot.

the bloody biscuit

Do you want to sign the card for XXX?

Who's that then?

S/He's the one four banks of desks along that ...

Never spoken to them in my life.

So are you signing the card?

As far as my colleagues know, I've never had a birthday.

I'd like to keep it that way as well.

... when they walk into a room, suck all the joy and fun out the atmosphere. Can we ban those people instead of cake? Would be great for morale (sorry, "mental health").

I know the BOFH will have a better method of dealing with them, but some of us are too timid for that.

I'm starting to think Professor Susan Jebb is one such person who doesn't get invited to such events that have cake on offer.

This presupposes that people don’t have the ability to self regulate and make informed decisions. What total bunk. Comparing this to something like passive smoking (which in my part of f the world is rather easy to avoid with all the prohibitions in place)is simply a joke.

Let’s be honest, there are a good many number folks who simply don’t care for the majority of sweets and the like and shy away from them. There are other who will only indulge in the office as they don’t buy them outside / for home, and there are those who just eat anything they get their paws on.

People will be people.

"says the chairwoman of the UK's Food Standards Agency"

If this is the greatest problem we face then this is a job that can be removed and free up tax payer money. Along with Jamie Olivers sugar tax idiots.

> But while we're on stereotypes, Brits actually have better teeth than Americans thanks to free healthcare

Yeah, that's not gonna last long. From what I can tell, NHS dentistry is basically nonexistent these days unless an existing patient/customer.

"Brits actually have better teeth than Americans thanks to free healthcare"

Point of correction, NHS (National Health Service) dental care in the UK is not free. Firstly, it's paid for through taxation and secondly, it's still not free at the point of service. Subsidised would be a better word.

Some (children, pregnant people etc.) get genuinely free dental healthcare at the point of service. But most people don't. I pay about £60 every few months for a dentist to spend 10 minutes poking about and (usually) saying "that's fine, see you in 9 months". That's just a check up. On the same cycle I pay the same amount for a "hygenist" (not as fully qualified as a dentist according to my surgery when I queried this) to actually do some ongoing maintenance.

Occasionally the dentist night tell me I need a filling or something (which is about £50 on the "free" NHS, or £180 if horror of horrors you want a tooth coloured one instead of a high contrast shiny black one)

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to pay this and grateful that I can afford it easily enough. I'm also a strong supporter of the NHS and I'm currently disgusted at how the UK government has allowed the NHS to decline to the state it is now. I'd be happy to pay more tax if the government would fund it properly - it needs paying for somehow. But to any journalist or non UK reader: don't call it free.

"Other people are making me fat"

Put. The. Fork. Down.

Where I work I must hear as many people declining due to diets or whatever as I see indulging. Or maybe having a half of slice etc.

Never a problem we all know. If you don't want to eat it don't eat.

Likened to passive smoking? FFS

Cave Johnson here.

When Aperture Science bakes we don't leave things to chance. We pack 23% more calories per calorie into our baked goods.

Try getting around that, humans! We're done.

Even if you started wrapping cauliflowers up like chocolate in brightly coloured foil packaging with cartoons on it, I still don't think there's much room to display many of them by the checkout, or that anyone feeling a bit peckish is going to casually buy one to eat on the bus. What would the advertising look like? "New! Cauliflower-Zero. The cauliflower you can eat between meals without ruining your appetite!"

Maybe chocolate coated cauliflowers might get folks interested.