Food For Thought

According to Psychology Today, there are five main reasons we crave comfort food. And, I’ve been craving them lately! Which resonate with you the most?

1. Feel good. Eating food high in fat, sugar or salt activates the brain’s reward system.

2. Self-medication. There seems to be a consistent connection between negative emotions and unhealthy foods, a phenomenon called emotional eating. In a bad mood, people are drawn to unhealthy foods (sugary and fatty) as a coping mechanism. In contrast, people in a positive mood tend to choose healthy foods (Gardner et al., 2014).

3. The need to belong. We tend to associate certain foods with members of our family, social gatherings, and people taking care of us, such as Thanksgiving holidays with family.

4. Nostalgic eating. There is a strong link between scents and emotional memory. The smell of foods can evoke vivid and detailed emotional memories of our past (Reid, et al., 2014).

5. Special occasions. We tend to go for special, often unhealthy, foods on celebratory occasions, like birthdays or Thanksgiving.