The Science of Comfort Foods

It is well known that there is an intimate relationship between emotional state and food intake —when we are overworked and stressed, comfort foods can makes us feel better. Lukas Van Oudenhove, from University of Leuven (Belgium), and colleagues have imaged changes in the brain when healthy nonobese individuals experience sadness. Reporting that the administration of a fat solution to the stomach attenuated the behavioral and nerve cell responses to sad emotion, the researchers submit that: “These findings increase our understanding of the interplay among emotions, hunger, food intake, and meal-induced sensations in health, which may have important implications for a wide range of disorders, including obesity, eating disorders, and depression.”