Can comfort foods really make you feel better?

Well, yes, they actually can. And the reason isn’t just psychological — although that is a more complicated statement than we used to think. The old medical model was based on the belief that body and mind are separate. Research has shown how wrong that is.

I’ve lived abroad for long spells and when I’ve been feeling lonely and alienated by too much foreignness, I’ve often cooked my way out of it. At one low point, I made a proper Lancashire pork pie and it cheered me out of my bleakness. I’d recreated a key taste of home and my mood lifted.

Dr Rupy Aujla, host of The Doctor’s Kitchen podcast, says comfort food provides a soothing effect on many levels. One is the placebo effect — if you think something is going to do you good, then it usually will.

Research by Prof Ted Kaptchuck of Harvard Medical School has shown that the belief in the power of the treatment you’re taking — the pork pie in my case — triggers a complex neurobiological reaction that involves the release of feel-good neurotransmitters like endorphins and dopamine. They make you feel better.

On another level, so many traditional comfort foods — soups, stews, omelettes, milk puddings — calm inflammation and nourish us.

 

Chicken soup — Jewish penicillin as it’s often called — is a staple of different Jewish cuisines all over the world. The meat and bones provide collagen and protein, the onions and vegetables in soup have anti-inflammatory effects. They also feed the complex mix of microbes in the gut that turn out to be powerful in regulating our hormone system — and generally controlling how we feel.

Following 5 delicious recipes  . 

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3yZlj0z0c5fG0Wwp5gFZv88/can-comfort-foods-really-make-you-feel-better