Health
It doesn't matter if it's macaroni and cheese, chicken soup, kimchi or just a salad — almost any familiar dish can bring comfort if you're struggling with loneliness, scientists say.
Habitual food is the one we eat on a daily basis, but food can be comforting when we eat it in front of someone else. Later, reminding us of those dishes also makes us remember the people we ate with.
The term “comfort food” was coined by Webster's dictionary back in 1977. Such foods include dishes that are used to improve mood or to reduce negative psychological pressure. That is, in other words, this kind of food brings comfort, well-being and pleasure. Such “comforting dishes” are different for each person. For some, it's mom's home cooking, for others it's fast food.
Scientists have tried to conduct experiments and find out what associations chicken soup causes in people. After asking 1,000 students what they considered “comforting” meals, most of them pointed to this soup. The scientists then treated a small group of participants to chicken noodle soup. After lunch, participants were asked to compose and write words from the proposed letters. Those who ate chicken soup, while considering it “comforting”, mostly composed words related to relationships. This made it clear that a person associates such food with relationships.
In the second part of the study, researchers determined how participants assessed their relationship and then asked them to describe a fight they had with someone close to them. Food was no longer offered, but participants imagined meals. They reported that after a fight, they wanted to eat something — a dish they considered “comforting” or a completely new dish. At the end of the studies, participants were asked to say whether they considered themselves lonely and, if so, how much. As a result, it turned out that “comforting” food helped participants not take their loneliness so seriously.
The food itself, of course, did not directly affect the participants' feelings, the scientists say. Potato puree or fried chicken will not have this effect, but they can cause association with someone close.
In studies, participants who did not find chicken soup “comforting” did not feel any emotions after they ate. At the same time, sweetness, salinity, temperature or the health value of food do not matter.