Study: Doughnuts Make Breakfast 80% More Delicious
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Photo by Anna Sullivan on Unsplash
A new study has confirmed something many of us have known all along: Doughnuts make breakfast more delicious. Eighty percent more so, in fact.
"These findings are good news for anyone looking for a cheap, easy way to add a little tastiness to their morning meal," said Max Rockatansky, Ph.D., lead author of the study. "Or, should I say, a lot of tastiness."
To conduct the study, which appears in this week's issue of the American Journal of Confectionery Science, Rockatansky and his colleagues randomly divided 62 subjects into two groups and seated them in separate dining rooms. Servers offered both groups a variety of breakfast foods, such as scrambled eggs, bacon, oatmeal, fresh fruit, and yogurt. One group, however, also got four large boxes of doughnuts from a local bakery.
Even controlling for variables such as age, gender, hunger level, and whether the subject currently had a "hankering" for something sweet, the doughnuts sent deliciousness levels through the roof.
“Oh my God. Doughnuts.”
The mere sight of the fried dough treats, in fact, boosted perceived levels of deliciousness by nearly 30%.
"Oh my God," said one participant in a typical comment. "Doughnuts."
Researchers used a variety of doughnuts for the study—glazed rings, jelly filled, Boston cream, cinnamon sugar, chocolate frosted, Long Johns, and crullers—but theorized that just about any type of doughnut would have the same effect.
"It seems reasonable to assume these results would apply to fritters and pastries as well," Rockatansky said. "Though that was beyond the scope of this study." Rainbow sprinkles increased deliciousness levels, he added, "but not in a statistically significant way."
Asked whether these results could be replicated with vegan or gluten-free doughnuts, Rockatansky didn't hesitate.
"No," he said.
