Not So Comforting: Chowing Down On Feel-Good Foods May Make Your Moods Even Worse

Comfort eating. We’ve all experienced it at some point during our lives. Whether it’s tucking into a pizza after a particularly stressful day of work or consoling yourself with some chocolate when something bad happens. Been there, done that.

It seems pretty obvious that the high we get from eating our favourite foods is short lived and now some research has found that comfort eating may actually make our moods even worse.

According to researchers at Pennsylvania State University, women who are concerned about their diet experience a worsening of their mood after they eat something unhealthy.

Researchers gave volunteers handheld computers to women who had unhealthy eating habits and concerns about their body shape. Throughout the day, the computers would ask the women questions about their mood and eating habits.

“What we know about mood and eating behaviours comes primarily from studies with eating disorder patients or from laboratory studies,” said Dr Heron, one of the lead researchers.

“We were interested in studying women in their everyday lives to see whether mood changed before or afer they engaged in unhealthy eating and weight control behaviours,” Dr Heron added.

The 'high' we feel after eating comfort foods is short lived

The researchers said that they believe this study could help them to develop better treatments for women who currently experience issues with eating.

“This study is unique because it evaluates moods and eating behaviours as they occur in people’s daily lives, which can provide a more accurate picture of the relationship between emotions and eating,” said Joshua Smyth, one of the co-authors of the study.

It’s worth mentioning that this research backs up previous studies which have suggested that comfort foods can be bad for mental wellbeing.