Blogpost 8: Healthy Comfort food

Since I mentioned in my last blogspot the comfort fod that we must 'avoid', I'll be discussion some healthy comfort food that we can gladly eat without being guilty afterwards. Even though people has their own preference on choosing what food comforts them (which in fact all food can comfort them or better to say that foood doesn't literally comforts them, lol) having this topic is very much important for them to know the food that will become their best friend and never to regret having them.

But then, I found articles that contradict the statements of my previous blogs, just for example  this article entitled "Why comfort food is healthy" by Naomi Coleman, according to her people have wrong perceptions to about comfort food being unhealthy, but for her these are okay food to comfort oneself. Chocolates, mashed potatoes, baked beans these are some of the food we thought that isn't healthy (specially chocolates) but she stated different good facts that makes us want more of these.

"Sounds too good to be true but finding comfort in chocolate is not all bad. Unlike most saturates, chocolate contains a saturate known as stearic acid which does not raise cholesterol levels. In addition, chocolate is a rich source of iron needed to make red blood cells and magnesium - essential for bone health," said Naomi.

Shiz! what the hell are these scientific words, nevertheless, this quote above just proved that our lovely chocolates isn't that bad to eat. There are different minerals that we can get from these sweets. and well in fact, chocolates does help prevent blood clotting, something that could be helpful to patients who are prone to heart attacks, strokes or deep vein thrombosis. GREAT NEWS FOR CHOCOLATE LOVERS!

The article "Comfort food has a place in a healthy diet" By Laura Parr speaks about comfort food is not bad at all, it can also be in the line of food we can eat while we're on a diet. 

"The key to a healthy diet is to be aware and conscious of what, when and why we eat what we do.  Jamie and I have always felt that no food should be banned or excluded from the diet, because this only fuels the craving more. We just have to be mindful of the portion size and frequency of consumption. Keeping a food diary for a few days every so often can be a useful way of keeping track of what you’re eating and drinking, which will help stop you from falling into a trap of eating mindlessly and letting emotions control your eating habits,"

And, YES! I agree to this statement, the more we resist ourselves on eating the food we crave the more we want them to eat, and big possibility to consume more once we have it.  Like what I always believe, TOO MUCH OF  SOMETHING IS NO GOOD, we should know that eating too much even though we said that its a low calorie food but we eat a lot, it will have just the same result.

It's true that you must be mindful, people should know that we can eat everything we want or we grave, this is okay, we should not regret or fell guilty after eating ice cream, chocolates or burgers because as long as we know are limitations and know when to stop, we can eat everything we like to eat.

Final words: BE MINDFUL AND KNOW YOUR LIMITATIONS!

Blogpost 7: What to avoid?

Wow, for more than a month I'm researching information about comfort food. I am very glad that I chose this topic, I again learned something new. Yet, even though it broke my faith that my  moodiness and being emotional BOREDOM or even because we're sick are the reasons why I'm eating a lot.. which is really not the reason. LOL.. However, with these information, I still haven't discuss these actual food.  there are food that we must AVOID! Oh my god,  avoiding food is the hardest thing to do! And I agree on that, that's why prepare yourself before knowing what really are these favorites you must avoid.

After reading numerous articles, I have found articles discussing about what comfort food we must avoid.  "Comfort Foods to Avoid When You're Sick" By Maryann Tomovich Jacobsen, from the title itself, this articles tackled about comfort foods we must avoid when we are sick. Comfort food such as alcohol and sugary beverages (which most of us really love), fried & spicy foods, dairy products (for some), sweets like cake, cookies, candy, etc.

Mentioned here that we should stay hydrated whenever we're sick, we  must stay hydrated and stay away to alcohols because these cause dehydration, same with spicy food, it's one of the "must avoid food" because eating spicy food is really heard to digest whenever we're stressed out or sick.

 "It might be tempting to run to your comfort foods to make you feel better, but that may not be the best thing for your body as it’s fighting off an infection," said Maryann.

This is so true, food temptation is one of the hardest to resist, we seek comfort to the food we eat, yet the truth is that it's not good for our own physical and mental being.


"Avoid the Comfort Food Trap" by K. Aleisha Fetters, this article talks about the habits people do when it comes to eating comfort food and she also mentioned on how to fix and change these habits. She mentioned the habits of eating too much carbohydrates which cause us to gain pounds, she said that instead of eating rice and oatmeals, change it to eating sweet potatoes which according to research, it helps depressions. She even mention about the microwaved and pre-heated food, instead of eating that we should just eat steamed veggies that will give us more nutrients than other kind of food.

"The term comfort food is a bit of a misnomer. We indulge in stuff like milkshakes and cheeseburgers to soothe ourselves, but they can actually have the opposite effect once they pass our lips—and it's not just because our clothes feel distressingly tighter," said Fetters.

The quote above was the first paragraph of Fetter's article, this means that eating fatty foods such as mentioned above gives us something  more than just getting heavier and heavier and there are a lot of negative aspects of these foods  that we can get. But still in the latter part of her articles, she fortunately tackled food that are good for us.

Blogpost 6: Cultural Comfort food

I'm done! I'm done explaining why comfort food is so comforting or what's behind comfort food why people keeps on eating them, and I am done explaining the side effects of these food. Well, in this blog post I'll discuss one interesting topic about comfort food.

Even though I explained to the people around me that comfort food is just a psychological matter, they still believe that their comfort food really does comforts them. And to get more perceptions about comfort food, I asked my classmates things what they want to know about comfort food, and one ask a question that really interests me, he asked if different countries have different type or set of food that is comforting for them. Is comfort food of the western countries different from the eastern countries? or Does comfort food depends on the nationalities of each person? I research on this and surprised to things I found..

I found a short article entitled "Bonnie Stern: Shepherd’s pie and other Canadian comfort food to hold close" by Bonnie Stern. The first time I saw the title of the article, my first thought was, "FOR REAL?! There's a CANADIAN COMFORT FOOD?" well yes, there is. Even though Bonnie only mentioned three Canadian comfort food, she explained why these food are considered comforting. According to him the foods she mentioned were connected to Canadian heroes, those people who protected their countries.

The first part of Bonnie's statement was "Remembrance Day is a serious time when we have the chance to truly consider what our freedom means — and to be grateful to the people who protect our country, both past and present. Although food has never been a large part of the day, cooking meals associated with the times, the places or the people you are remembering makes a thoughtful tribute."\

The quote above was to express her gratefulness to her ancestors, she said that shepherd's pie which made of beef is a timeless comfort food for them. And also the wacky cake which was also called as war cake, during the years of war dairy products were rationed to other countries and this cake was very cheap with low-fat ingredients.

The article "International Comfort Foods" by Peter Jon Lindberg talks about the different comfort food of different places, he  mentioned the example of British comfort food like bangers-and-mash and beef stew and is called as the "nursery food" because it is used to make the kids fall asleep with the amount of fat and carbs. He includes Los Angeles, USA, which was a kid-city and the most comforting food for them are the sweet foods such as cookies, chocolates, cotton candies and some salty such as fries and burgers.

And of course,  Asian food!! The heart warming and soul-nourishing comfort of Asian treats, such as the famous bimbap from Korea, the Dodas of India and the Vietnamese summer rolls. These comfort food are convenient because its easy-finger food.

And according to Peter, "And the national comfort trend shows no sign of slowing."

The quote above is true, people around the world seeks for comfort foods, even if there's a variation or different preference of comfort food, still their main point on eating comfort food is to enlighten their feeling and lift up their mood.
 

Blogpost 5: Food Guilt

What is GUILTY PLEASURE? Hmm.. it is when you enjoy doing something and you felt guilty because you enjoyed it too much. Just for example in eating your comfort food, you enjoy eating a lot because it lifted your mood, yet, afterwards  you are regretting it because you ate TOO MUCH. 

I must admit, eating is my guilty pleasure; After I eat  rice (which I'm refraining to eat), I have this feeling of regret,  I shouldn't have eat it, or shouldn't eat at all. We could say that comfort food is the TOP guilty pleasure of every human kind, meaning, It is a big YES, food comforted you but after that it will only adds up to your moodiness and emotions because you're not too happy on how much you just ate. But there's this question appeared in my mind, is being guilty on eating is part of an eating disorder?

With this, I found an article about having guilt for eating, the article entitled, "The New Eating Disorder You Might Not Realize You Have: Food Guilt" of Kesley Damassa. She mentioned in her article that  the meaning of food guilt, which says that food guilt is an eating disorder yet having this is normal, it was originated from people who were influenced by televisions, magazines and all which shows people that there are good food to eat and bad food to refrained to. With these, people have the thinking that eating bad food will have the negative effect on you that you will not like and you'll be no near from being the girl in the movie. 
The point is, having food guilt is a again a psychological disorder that makes you regret for the food you ate.

According to Sheila Tucker, "Food choices don’t make you a bad person – but that is how many people, especially women, talk to themselves."

The quote above was a quote mentioned in the article which was stated by a dietitian from Boston. This quote had an effect on me because a lot of people specially around me (or more like me) are like this. Yes, they think that they made the worst things by just eating. Some of my friends even say sorry for eating to much, because for them eating 'bad' food is a mistake.

The article, Comfort Food: Guilty Pleasure? by Annette Kornblum, talks about the comfort food is a guilty pleasure, where in in their country the fast food offers super-sized meals such as fries, sodas, and burgers which are some of the comfort food a person looks for. 

She also discussed the what comfort food does just like my previous blog post, but what attracts me most in her article was when her friend mentioned that quote. "Even if you eat the most decadent dessert, if you control the portions, you can feel good about it and about yourself and move on."

The quote above was very different to the first article I have discussed where in people are guilty to what they eat, in this quote, it is a positive reinforcement to those who are guilty because it give enlightenment and lifting the feeling of the guilty ones. They have to learn to control the portion they eat, eating great and tasty food will make you feel good but a person must know the limitation of eating these savory food. Just enjoy the food you eat and move on, yes easier said than done, but if you really don't want beautiful things turn into ugly things you should really know what you'll do before you act.

Blogpost 4: Explanations

Well, according to wikipedia, comfort food maybe consumed to positively emotions, to relieve negative psychological effects or to increase positive feelings. Hmm,  in my previous blog posts, I did mentioned different aspects why comfort food are comforting, or why people seek for these sweet fattening food every time their feeling happy or depress. But, just like other things, does comfort food has side effects?

Now, I'll be discussing the different side effects of comfort food, both negative and positive.

After reading articles about comfort food, I found these articles tackling the mental side effects of comfort food to humans. One article entitled "COMFORT FOOD FOR YOUR BRAIN" by Mark Hyman, his article was about the different diseases or illnesses a brain could have, he mentioned that body and mind are connected system and with the imbalances it may cause brain disorders. He did mention that eating nutritious food may help someone to become mentally healthy.

"In fact, when it comes to dealing with anxiety, moodiness, depression and memory problems, certain healthy foods — including a wide array of fats, proteins, carbs and special nutrients — help heal and comfort your brain in ways that no drug or other intervention can. And chances are good that you could benefit from eating a whole lot more of these foods more often," Mark said.

The quotation above simply means that comfort food is good for our brain. With food that have essential fats such as the omega-3 fats, which helps the brain and cells healthy (low omega-3 fats results to depression to anxiety or worst dementia); food with protein and amino acid that helps our brain to work properly and  away from being unfocused and tired; Carbohydrates, food such as vegetables, beans whole grain and more, prevents high blood sugar and insulin, which are toxic to the brain; and lastly, of course food must have vitamins for strong healthy mind.

Nevertheless, I read an article "New Research in Comfort Eating" by Susan Albers, saying that it is true that comfort food gives different positive outcome to people. She mentioned that it is possible that the cause of food being comforting was because of the memories and experiences (which was also mentioned in my previous blog). Yet, she tackled about a research where a saturated fat solution (in exchage of real food)  was being injected to the   respondents, the result was just the same with respondents who really did eat actual food.

According to Susan, "Why does this study matter?  Perhaps it suggests that at the moment your brain is locked into this equation:  Feel Bad + Comfort Food=Feel Better.  If you continually pair feeling bad with food over and over again, it is likely that you will strengthen this connection in your brain.  Also, eating for comfort on a very stressful day begins generalizing to sort of stressful days to any minor bits of stress etc."

The quotation above means that we are locked up with the thinking of comfort food will make us better, and lessen stress. Yet, if this thinking will be used a lot of time, to the point that eating these kinds of food become your habit will make you stress, for the reasons that you are guilty because you ate a lot, or regretting mindless eating and gained weight.

This article reminds me the saying that i always remember, too much of something is not good.

Blogpost 3: It's NOT really the comfort food! Say what?!

Every people who have problems look for something to do to release the bad feelings they have, one of these is eating their comfort food. They say eating that is one of the best thing to do to surpass the heavy feeling you're having, that you will only going to be satisfied once you tasted great and delicious comfort food of yours. Eating your favorite strawberry cake or cheesy burger will uplift these heaviness? But, are these really true? Is only your chosen comfort food can help you? Wherein an specific food can't make you feel better.

I mentioned in my previous blog that comfort food resembles the happy memories that is why it can change your mood, nevertheless, I have read an article entitled, "Comfort Food Myth: Ice Cream May not Boost you Mood" by a senior write, Rachael Rettner and according to the article, Heather Scherschel Wagner, a researcher had an study showing that not only one person's specific comfort food will ease the pain he's feeling. After the respondents in the study watched a sad tormenting movie  for 20 minutes long, all of them were depressed and in pain. The searchers gave some of the respondents their specific comfort food, some got any kind of food and some got nothing. In the end, these respondents were fine after awhile, even though some did not got their specific comfort food and others did not get anything at all.

Rachael mentioned,"But the new findings suggest that, "whether it's your comfort food, or it’s a granola bar, or if you eat nothing at all, you will eventually feel better. Basically, comfort food can't speed up that healing process," Wagner said. It makes sense that people would attribute an improvement in mood to something they ate, without realizing that the food wasn't necessarily responsible for the mood change. "[People] like to find explanations for things," Wagner said."

The quotation above means that even without eating you comfort food, can still make your feeling better and it does not uplift you  faster. It's just our nature to find reasons of everything that happens to us, that we even thought that food solves everything.

The article "Comfort Food Is a Myth" by Tom Jacobs strengthened the believe of the article above. In Jacobs article, he also mentioned a study like Wanger did, and in the end they have the same result. That people's bad feeling will not be removed by food. Even though most of the respondents from the research strongly believe that their comfort food can make them feel better.

Jacob mentioned, "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." 

Meaning you eat or not, the bad feeling you have improves when time passes by. Food has nothing to do in improving you mood. It is just people's excuse to eat more and more and more! Haha these article enlighten me and adds up my learning and yet I just lost my reason why I eat every time I'm feeling sad. Hmm this articles sucks!