Science: Nothing Comforting About Comfort Food

[NJCher]

Bingeing on ice cream and Netflix won't make you feel better... But maybe Netflix will.


Well, it's official. I now have no excuse to binge on gobs of popcorn when it's 11 pm and I'm stressed out over a deadline. Popcorn is one of my many comfort foods. We all have them—they're what we turn to when we're stressed, sad, or upset.

Now a study has emerged showing that the comforting effect of food may actually be a myth. Indeed, it seems there is no effect on our mood when compared to other foods, or simply not eating at all.

According to Pacific Standard, a team of researchers at the University of Minnesota made the conclusion from a two-part study involving 100 students. The participants each watched 18 minutes of film clips designed to make them upset.

http://refrigerators.reviewed.com/news/science-nothing-comforting-about-comfort-food?utm_source=usat&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=collab


My two cents is that if you think it's comfort food, it's going to be comforting.

When I make "comfort food," it's the memories that make it "comforting." I think of my mom and the aromas from the kitchen. I think about the good times we had as a family, all seated around the table. My parents were very protective, so things like aromas make me feel safe and protected.

I would think, though, that this would be similar to the other participants. So comfort food isn't really comforting? Might as well resort to a no-dressing green salad.


Cher

[Galileo126]

1. Ditto!

My "comfort foods" are the recipes from my childhood as well. When you're a kid, the biggest question on your mind is "What's for suppah?"

So, when I make recipes from my early days, the memories flow... Remember Pinto's thread about certain food and memories?

[NJCher]

4. Yep, but I also notice

That the type of thing you like is very similar to what I like. Sometimes I look at your posts and say, "Oh yeah, I'd do that, totally."

I do remember Pinto's thread. On that one I reminisced about my grandmother's Sunday dinners. I have vivid pictures of my mother's cooking, too. Most of my "comfort food" dinners have to do with family memories. They seem to be particularly associated with cooking aromas.

When that reporter mentioned popcorn, a picture came up in my mind of mom and me making popcorn for the "Alfred Hitchcock Hour" on Friday nights. She loved Hitchcock, and also mysteries and thrillers and I have developed that interest on into adulthood. We would get in our house robes and cuddle up on the couch together, sipping hot chocolate and munching on popcorn. The best time ever!



Cher

[Galileo126]

6. Popcorn and Hitchcock with Mom

My mom also is a HUGE Hitchcock fan, and I also remember the Friday nights and the "Alfred Hitchcock Hour"!

Your mom and my mom should go bowling together... be it here or the afterlife.

[NJCher]

7. What a weird coincidence!

Mom's still on earth plane, watching reruns of the Alfred Hitchcock Hour!





Cher

[Trailrider1951]

12. Did you know that Netflix has the Alfred Hitchcock Hour?

I watched some of them last month. Enjoy!

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

8. That's why, to this day, one of my 'comfort foods'

is chicken ala king out of a can, over toast. My maternal grandmother had no sense of smell or taste, and couldn't 'cook' anything that wasn't simply 'pour out of can and heat'. She also stayed thin as a rail her whole life, probably because without a sense of taste, the only incentive to eat was simply staying alive.

[grasswire]

9. your post makes me think of this poem:

Backward, turn backward
O time in thy flight
Make me a child again
Just for tonight


That poem comes to mind every time I think of my childhood, with 15 cousins and aunts, uncles, grandparents in big old stone house at the holidays. Typical American family with uncles home from WW2, grandparents New Englanders, lots of laughter, no fights, and no one named Boo Boo. Lucky for me, many of my cousins still live nearby and we get together regularly. Our collective comfort food is still grandmother's Connecticut baked beans, although none of us can QUITE capture the nuance of her dish. Ha!

[NJCher]

10. too early to think of a subject line, but....

no one named Boo Boo.



All of it sounds wonderful, from the old stone house to still getting together regularly. Thanks for the poem. We English teachers love it when unexpected snippets of poetry come our way.


Cher

[grasswire]

11. the whole poem -- it's a tear jerker

Rock Me to Sleep
by: Elizabeth Chase Allen

Backward turn backward, O time, in your flight,
Make me a child again just for to-night!
Mother, come back from the echoless shore,
Take me again to your heart as of yore;
Kiss from my forehead the furrows of care,
Smooth the few silver threads out of my hair,
Over my slumbers your loving watch keep; -
Rock me to sleep, Mother – rock me to sleep!

Backward, flow backward, oh, tide of the years!
I am so weary of toil and of tears -
Toil without recompense, tears all in vain -
Take them, and give me my childhood again!
I have grown weary of dust and decay -
Weary of flinging my soul-wealth away;
Weary of sowing for others to reap; -
Rock me to sleep, Mother – rock me to sleep!

Tired of the hollow, the base, the untrue,
Mother, O Mother, my heart calls for you!
Many a summer the grass has grown green,
Blossomed and faded, our faces between;
Yet, with strong yearning and passionate pain,
Long I to-night for your presence again.
Come from the silence so long and so deep; -
Rock me to sleep, Mother – rock me to sleep!

Over my heart, in the days that are flown,
No love like mother-love ever was shown;
No other worship abides and endures, -
Faithful, unselfish, and patient like yours;
None like a mother can charm away pain
From the sick soul and the world-weary brain,
Slumber’s soft calms o’er my heavy lids creep; -
Rock me to sleep, Mother – rock me to sleep!

Come, let your brown hair, just lighted with gold,
Fall on your shoulders again as of old;
Let it drop over my forehead to-night,
Shading my faint eyes away from the light;
For with its sunny-edged shadows once more
Haply will throng the sweet vision of yore:
Lovingly, softly, its bright billows sweep; -
Rock me to sleep, Mother – rock me to sleep!

Mother, dear Mother, the years have been long
Since I last hushed to your lullaby song;
Sing then, and unto my soul it shall seem
Womanhood’s years have been only a dream,
Clasped to your heart in a loving embrace,
With your light lashes just sweeping my face,
Never hereafter to wake or to weep; -
Rock me to sleep, Mother – rock me to sleep

..................

My memories are happier than Allen's, though!

[LeftofObama]

2. I can't agree with that at all.

I've found that in stressful times pasta is my go to comfort food and it works for me. Lasagna, spaghetti, fettuccine all seem to have a calming effect when I am highly stressed. I think I'll stick with what works.

[cbayer]

3. I can't get to the actual study, but the abstract of this study is really silly.

Basically they showed students videos that made them feel bad. Then they gave them either their comfort food, a different food or no food. Everyone felt better no matter what they got.

So this proves nothing about comfort food. All one can conclude is that a change in mood induced by a video is going to be short lived and go away in a brief period of time.

Comfort foods are about indulging yourself and precipitating comforting memories, as you describe. In order to make a point, they would need to test them on subjects who were in a mood state that made them want one of their comfort foods.

[NJCher]

5. I agree

I think they messed up on the premise of the study.



Cher

[1dogleft]

13. sheperds pie, mac and cheese

fried chicken that's my kinda comfort food and I don't need someone telling me it isn't. If I listened to everyone who was trying to tell me what is good for me.........well, you get my point

[cbayer]

14. Hey, we might be soul mates!

Those are mine as well, and they make me feel better when I feel low.

I don't care what they say.

[japple]

15. and a pint o' Guinness!

Raising a glass to those non-believers like me!