Blogpost 2: Give me something sweet, give me something salty. I need comfort!

I am very stressed, I need ice cream! I am deeply sad, I need chocolates! I am insanely happy, I need burger and fries! Food.. Food.. Food.. why is it every time people are having some extreme emotions, they look for something to eat? Something that's sweet or something that's salty? Why does fudge relieve stress and sadness, why does cheesy pizza adds up to your enthusiasm? I am really curious. I, as well crave for these whenever I'm emotional.

Well, I have found a health website, www.goaskalice.columbia.edu, and according to the article, "Why do people find fatty or sugary foods comforting?" by the diarist named Alice, our cravings for sweet and salty flavors can be influenced genetically or environmentally. She mentioned in that our ancestors didn't have knowledge about the scientific effects of sweet and salty food to our body, they only knew that sweet food gives energy and salty food gives essential minerals. However, we have these information that our body needs sodium and sugars.

Nevertheless, Alice mentioned that "Though humans have inherent preferences for sweet and salty flavors, comfort food choices vary because we are influenced by individual psychological factors that result from life experiences. Even though each of us is born into a unique food environment that is dependent on climate, economy, and culture, studies have shown that women in the United States generally prefer sweet, snack-type foods. This may be the result of pleasant feelings being associated with foods that were served as dessert, as the reward for eating dinner, or for happy occasions, such as parties or holidays. Men tend to prefer salty, meal-type foods, such as mashed potatoes. Meal-type foods might have positive connotations for men because they were lovingly prepared by their mothers and grandmothers. The identification of meal- over snack-type comfort food preferences increases in both genders as they age."

Meaning,  food became comforting because of our experience. Even though we have were born in different food environment, studies have shown that women are feeling relieved from stress by eating sweets which reminds them a happy memories such as holidays while salty food reminds men the food served by their mothers. Furthermore, there comfort food preference increases as time pass. This is associated with the article of Deborah Serani, Comfort Foods Improves Mood that was mentioned in my first blogspot.


The article Why Comfort Foods Works, by Malgret Aldrich tackled their research with the participants in the Belgian study , they found out that fatty acid  activates the brain region that regulate the emotions at the same time reduces the feeling of sadness. 

"Certain foods can have a particularly strong effect on emotions, according to researchers in Belgium. So what comfort food works best to bolster our moods? Mashed potatoes? Macaroni and cheese? Mainlined ice cream sundaes? Any of these can work, as long as they contain one key ingredient: fat," said Aldrich.

This quotation above simply means that every food that contains fat changes ones emotion. Therefore, not only sweet and salty food are comforting, as long as a food contains FAT, the sadness feeling will surpass. This articles cleared that cravings for comfort food are not only psychological but scientific.  

Blogpost 1: What's up with comfort food?

Huh! FOOOOOOD! I am going to talk about food, my favorite part of the human life (well who doesn’t).  Everyone who will see me will think that I definitely love food, and that its part of me or I will possibly not live a day without having a glimpse of these precious nourishments. Well, actually  they are correct. Maybe that’s why I am on the bigger world side, hahaha meaning I’m on the (what I like to call) ‘plus size’ side.  I love food, eating is the best part of my day and having a great meal makes my life wonderful.

However, the thing is people are like me, we love to eat and there are people who can eat half rice or half of a rice cooker, unbelievable right? My point is everyone loves food especially when we are feeling emotional, stress, or even delighted. During these moments we seek something great food to eat, mainly sweets and salty food. That’s why these kinds of food are considered as ‘comfort food’.   But before that, what’s comfort food?  Why comfort food called comfort food?

 Hence, according to”The Psychology behind Comfort Food” by Ryan Chang of Spoon University, the significance of comfort food is that it has the power to enlighten ones mood and that these work by creating positive and negative reinforcement, a process of conditioning that affect  our  brain to consume more of and crave for these comforting foods.

“…when we eat food, we receive positive reinforcement by obtaining physical sustenance along with great flavors and taste. Positive reinforcement is when we receive something, which leads us to want to continue the action that caused the effect (more happiness).

Additionally, we also receive negative reinforcement when we eat food to relieve stress, and we begin to associate eating comfort food with the lessening of a burden. Negative reinforcement is when something is taken away, which leads us to want to continue the action that caused the effect (less stress). After a period of time, our minds will be trained to seek out food as a way to deal with our problems in life. This process causes us to crave food, creating the idea of “comfort food,” said 

Chang.

The above quote means that comfort food are food that what we crave to eat during our emotional or delighted moment may considered as comfort food because it increases  our joyful feeling and decreases or eases our stressful feeling. Which I agree because I too, crave for food every time I am feeling down, happy or even bored.

 Which the article “Comfort food Improve  Moods” in Two Takes on Depression  by Deborah Serani justify the article above that eating great foods that are associated to your awesome feelings will improves your well-being and lessen your loneliness and depression too. She also mentioned in her article that there is also physiological reasoning why these foods are considered as comforting.

According to Serani, “When you're living with depression, it's important to know that there's also a physiological influence to the food you consume. The chemical structure of what you eat communicates with your body, which can affect cognitsion, influence mood and physical body states.”

This means foods are like a drug that can change your mental and physical being. That there are elements of the food you consume has the characteristics that can change your mood and influences your physical body.

Maybe that’s the reason why food is considered comforting because it can help you to change your mood.