People believed that comfort food actually makes them feel better once their mood is at a low point but a recent study pressed that one's "comfort food" does not do anything to alter one's mood noting that any kind of food actually does not affect a person's disposition.
The researchers of the said study have published this on the journal called "Health Psychology" and they tested such hypothesis on a sample population.
The researchers first asked the group what their favorite comfort food was and also asked them about foods they liked but were not identified as their comfort food. After a week, the participants were called back as they had to watch a 20-minute video that was designed to put someone's mood off.
Some of them were given their comfort food, which was mainly chocolate or ice cream, other were given their neutral food, and the others were not given any food at all. Their mood was then measured afterwards.
The study then recorded three food types, in reference to comfort food, neutral food, and no food, then the results showed that the mood has improved after eating their comfort food but it did not pass the mood of those people who ate their neutral food and those who ate nothing.
According to the co-author of the study, Heather Scherschel Wagner from the University of Minnesota, the common factor in the mood changing was actually time and not food. She said: "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."
The researchers also explained why people believed such statement referencing two possible reasons: first is the placebo effect and second is the stimulants contained in some foods. The placebo effect means that people were enculturated to believe that comfort food really ups the mood.
