Because a new diet promises that munching a bar of the sweet stuff each morning will help you lose weight.

The ‘Big Breakfast’ weight-loss plan involves cramming your body with 700-calories worth of carbohydrates when you wake up.

It recommends a daily breakfast of a glass of milk, 30g of chocolate, two slices of cheese, 85g of lean meat and two slices of buttered whole-grain toast.

Sound fattening to you? Apparently not.

According to Doctor Daniela Jakubowicz, who has used the diet on her patients for 15 years, a rich breakfast helps curb cravings for carbohydrates later in the day.

She said: "Very low carbohydrate diets are not a good method to reduce weight. They exacerbate the craving for carbohydrates."

Dieters who ate a big breakfast said they felt less hungry, especially before lunch, and had fewer carbohydrate cravings than people eating a low-carbohydrate diet.