Here's A Thought: Is Comfort Food Really Comforting?
Seven months in to 2019 and we are already calling it a long effing year.
No matter how you felt about our brilliant cricket team not making it to the World Cup finals, or how happy or disappointed you were with the elections earlier this year or just the general state of chaos that surrounds us, panic and paranoia over something or the other is everywhere.
How do you cope?
Well, we eat.
Everyone copes in different ways but we think most of us can agree that greasy spring rolls, cheese burst pizza or chocolate chip ice-cream would really hit the spot and comfort us right about now.
But that brings me to the question of the hour: does comfort food really provide comfort? Can Nutella drizzled gooey brownies or hot chocolate fudge really make you feel great about a shitty day? Or put another way, do certain food items provide more solace than others? Can comfort food provide comfort or the feeling is just the onset of a food coma? Let¡¯s find out.
Once again I hate to be the bearer of bad news but guess what: scientists are determined to rain on our sugar-high, Nutella drenched parade. A new study has found concrete evidence that suggests comfort foods are not effective at lifting moods, at least not any more than other foods. This study has gone onto report that you can sit alone without consuming a single calorie and still feel okay in a couple of hours.
So is Science trying to tell me that four bricks of strawberry ice-cream actually had nothing to do with me feeling okay about my break-up?
¡°Negative moods naturally dissipate over time," writes a University of Minnesota research team led by psychologist Traci Mann. "Individuals may be giving comfort food 'credit' for mood effects that would have occurred even in the absence of the comfort food.¡±
The purpose of the studies carried out by Traci Mann and her team was simple. The aim is to investigate whether comfort foods actually provide psychological benefits, and if so, whether they improve mood better than comparison foods or no food.
Mann and her colleagues conducted four different experiments. Participants in the study filled out a questionnaire on which comfort foods and non-comfort foods they liked most. On two separate occasions, they were shown films to induce a depressed mood. After the first session, participants were served their comfort food, and after the second they were either given the equally liked non-comfort food, neutral food, or nothing to eat.
The study found that comfort food had no more effect on improving mood than any other option.
"Participants' moods improved over time," the researchers report. However, they add, "this happened to the same extent regardless of which type of food they ate, or whether they at any food at all."
Researchers concluded that participants' moods would have improved anyway over time, with or without access to comfort food.
In other words, we¡¯ve lost another reason to indulge in junk food. That¡¯s awfully distressing but it¡¯s great news for people who are struggling with obesity and other complex health issues. The major takeaway for you is that anything that¡¯s bothering you will eventually pass, and without the help of chocolate chip ice-cream.
