The mackerel stew my mother used to make, the tteokbokki I ate on my way home from school, a bowl of porridge I ate when I was sick… ,
If there’s a food you find often that tastes good just thinking about it, and that you want to eat when you’re depressed, you can call that food your “comfort food.” It is a nostalgic or emotionally comforting food. Eating it gives you satisfaction and temporarily improves your mood.
What’s your comfort food? Why do I keep looking for that food? Let’s find out why we’re looking for comfort food through ‘Psychology Today’, a UK media specializing in psychology.
feeling better
When you eat delicious food, the same parts of the brain are activated that are activated when you are addicted to drugs. In a study of obese people, brain regions associated with drug reward were shown to activate when they were met with delicious food beforehand.
has a healing effect
Emotional eating is common when you’re not hungry, but when you’re feeling down or stressed, you’re foraging for food. When in a bad mood, people gravitate towards unhealthy foods that are sweet or high in calories as a coping mechanism. On the other hand, when we’re in a good mood, we tend to make healthy food choices.
gives a sense of security
We tend to associate certain foods with meeting family and friends and with people who appreciate us. When we are alone, we crave these foods that give us comfort and security. In other words, the power of comfort food may lie primarily in the associations it evokes: the memory of a secure attachment. It has been found that people with good family relationships are more likely to seek out comfort foods when they feel alone.
arouse nostalgia
There is a strong link between perfume and emotional memory. The smell of food can evoke vivid and detailed emotional memories of the past. We like certain foods as a result of what we’ve learned so far. Because memories triggered by smells tend to be positive, they lift your mood and make you feel connected to society.
