Comfort Food

 

Comfort in small amounts is a good thing, however overindulgence makes it difficult to button one’s pants.

Like all of us, life has a funny way of getting me down sometimes, however, there are certain things that can pick up my spirits.  My top two are chocolate and ice cream.  As I have mentioned in previous articles, I make a homemade shake from chocolate ice cream called a Swavel that makes me feel like a happy camper again.

A word of caution, before we go any further.  Comfort foods, if forced upon another individual, can cause stress rather relieve it.    Once, as a frustrated parent, I tried to make my eldest daughter eat ice cream.  Dumb I know, but I had bought it for her at a baseball game and thought it would be wasteful for her not to finish it.  It only made her cry when I started to raise my voice and give her an ultimatum.  Leave it to me to make comfort food something that can upset you.

Often in my life, I have heard more than one person who mentioned that a bowl of ice cream made them feel better.  It didn’t solve all their problems, but it gave them solace for a few moments and an opportunity to relax and disconnect from the world for a moment. Jennifer Garner, star of the move, Alexander’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day, offered this piece of advice “The best kind of bad days are the kind that are fixed with chocolate reading a book at night and a bath.”

Which begs the question, “why do certain foods bring us comfort?”  An article written by Adi Kochavi on March 3^rd, 2008, in the Cornell Daily Sun offers some clarity.  In her article she quotes the researcher, Brian Wasnik, director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab and author of the book, MINDLESS EATING.

The following are some of those intriguing insights which shed some light on the properties of comfort food:

-The three foods most men considered to be their favorite comfort foods were ice cream, soup and pizza or pasta. “Many [men] said that when they ate these foods they felt ‘spoiled,’ ‘pandered,’ ‘taken care of’ or ‘waited on.’ Generally they associated these foods with being the focus of attention from either their mother or wife,” the book stated.

-For women, snack-like foods — candy, cookies, ice cream, chocolate — were hassle-free. Part of their comfort was to not have to make anything or clean anything up.”

-Overall, it appears that comfort foods are “eaten to either help maintain a positive mood or to repair a negative mood,”

-Past associations with foods are the most common reason a food becomes a comfort food. Some of these associations can be linked to specific individuals or specific events. They also come to be associated with specific feelings that one likes to recall or wants to recapture,” he stated. “In all instances, the general feelings evoked — feelings of safety, love, homecoming, appreciation, control, victory, or empowerment — are ones that pull us to these foods.”

Coincidently, both genders seem to find ice cream as a food that comforts them.  Off the top of my head I don’t know the molecular break down of ice cream, but somehow it just seems to soothe most everybody. With that being said, this article is making me hungry for a chocolate shake.  And why not, life is short and within reason it should be enjoyed more than just tolerated. 

Swavel