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Mar 17, 2023 · Here are 9 of the worst foods, drinks and ingredients to consume for anxiety: Alcohol. Artificial sweeteners. Cakes, cookies, candy and pies. Coffee, tea and energy drinks. Fruit and vegetable ...
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Oct 21, 2024 · Vitamin C-rich foods: Research has shown that eating foods high in vitamin C, like citrus fruit, kiwi and bell peppers, can help manage anxiety, said Anderson Haynes. “Incorporating these fresh ...
- Overview
- Comfort food as a stress-management strategy
- Mice research and human applicability
- What are comfort foods?
•Eating comfort food when stressed switches off the brain region that stops you from over-eating, according to a new study.
•Under normal circumstances, this region neutralizes the chemical reward one gets from eating, making it less enjoyable.
•The phenomenon makes sense in wild animals, including non-modern humans, promoting a quick intake of energy in response to a threat.
•However, it is less helpful in today’s world, where stress is less often directly related to survival.
For people who are stressed, it may seem as if comfort food offers the ideal — and maybe only — quick fix. A new study in mice from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, Australia suggests, however, that those people should think twice before tucking into a treat.
The study finds that the combination of stress and comfort food switches off the brain’s mechanism for letting one know when they have had enough to eat.
If eating comfort food as a response to stress can lead to weight gain, can it be a sensible personal strategy?
From an evolutionary perspective, according to the study’s lead author Dr. Chi Kin Ip of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, yes, it can be.
“Eating behavior is probably the most critical behavior that is conserved across all species to support survival,” he said.
Dr. Ip said that animals living in the wild lack the privilege of over-indulging in high fat food sources and that their stress systems allow them to survive by fine-tuning their energy use and supply depending on current demands.
High fat foods provide a way to gain energy quickly, and as Dr. Ip put it, “having more energy in the body is certainly better in the wild than having less energy.”
In modern humans, stress is less relevant to our literal survival.
Asked about the likelihood that a mouse study produced results that would also apply to humans, both Dr. Ip and Dr. Tomiyama felt that it did.
“Humans are animals just like mice, and non-human animal studies provide really tight experimental control that provides valuable information we just can’t get in humans,” Dr. Tomiyama said.
Dr. Ip explained some of the similarities between humans and animals:
“The anatomical structure, as well as the function of the habenula, is highly conserved across all species, including humans. The lateral habenula is a region that plays a critical role in regulating emotional response. Under activation, it triggers an aversive behavior, which is one of the mechanisms that triggers emotional distress. However, when they are silenced, it induces the opposite, which is a reward response,” he said.
It is not entirely clear if there is a universal definition of comfort food, said Dr. A. Janet Tomiyama, who was not involved in the study.
“People assume comfort food is automatically high fat, high-sugar, high calorie foods,” she said, “but no one has systematically tested this.”
The general sense, however, said Dr. Lesley Rennis, who was also not involved in the study, is that “comfort food is food that tastes good and makes us feel good. Typically, it is calorie-dense, rich in sugar and fat, and often has nostalgic and sentimental value.”
“Sometimes called hyper-palatable foods, these foods are rewarding and stimulate the release of feel-good hormones like serotonin.”
— Dr. Lesley Rennis
Much research has investigated the psychological appeal of comfort foods. Dr. Rennis said the study adds to the conversation.
Feb 15, 2021 · Stress, the hormones it unleashes, and the effects of high-fat, sugary "comfort foods" push people toward overeating. Researchers have linked weight gain to stress, and according to an American Psychological Association survey, about one-fourth of Americans rate their stress level as 8 or more on a 10-point scale.
- hhp_info@health.harvard.edu
Dec 11, 2023 · Stress Eating Comfort Food Can Increase Mental Health and Heart Disease Risks. Written by Nancy Schimelpfening, MS on December 11, 2023 — Fact checked by Jill Seladi-Schulman, Ph.D. New research ...
Jun 8, 2023 · Emotional eating: Stress can also lead to emotional eating as a coping mechanism. The combination of stress-induced cravings and the consumption of calorie-dense comfort foods can contribute to ...
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(H3) Compared to the low stress group, the high stress group also showed lower cortisol output in response to the lab stressor (51.13 vs.158.24; p = .03; Figure 1).We further tested using a one-way ANOVA whether the high stress group showed a similar psychological response to the stressor as the low stress group to see if their hypoactivity might be due to lack of psychological stress response ...
