Comfort food


Comfort food is food that provides the eater a nostalgic or sentimental value and may be characterized by its satisfying heartiness and association with childhood or home cooking. The nostalgia may be specific to an individual or it may apply to a specific culture.

Definition and history

The term comfort food can be traced back at least to 1615, where in the beginning of the second part of Don Quixote, at the beginning of chapter one, Quixote's niece and her nurse are told to pamper him, "to give him things to eat which are comforting and appropriate for the heart and the brain...." Others trace it back to 1966, when the Palm Beach Post used it in a story: "Adults, when under severe emotional stress, turn to what could be called 'comfort food'—food associated with the security of childhood, like mother's poached egg or famous chicken soup." According to research by April White at JSTOR, it might have been Liza Minnelli who used the term for the first time in its modern meaning in an interview, admitting to craving a hamburger.
When the term first appeared, newspapers used it in quotation marks. In the 1970s, the most popular comfort food in the United States were various potato dishes and chicken soup, but even at the time, the definition varied from person to person. During the next decades, the nature of comfort food changed in the US, shifting from savory dishes to sweet ones, while comfort food themed cookbooks started to spread and restaurants started to offer items labelled as such, when originally the term was used for food items consumed "home alone". Worldwide diet trends emerging in the 1990s, like the low fat or the low-carb diet, were unable to end the cravings for comfort food. According to White, the COVID-19 pandemic that hit the world in 2020 further strengthened people's need for comfort food that evokes nostalgia and the feeling of belonging.

Psychological studies

Consuming energy-dense, high calorie, high fat, salt or sugar foods, such as ice cream or french fries, may trigger the reward system in the human brain, which gives a distinctive pleasure or temporary sense of emotional elevation and relaxation. These feelings can also be induced by psychoactive ingredients found in other foods, such as coffee and chocolate. When psychological conditions are present, people often use comfort food to treat themselves. Those with negative emotions tend to eat unhealthy food in an effort to experience the instant gratification that comes with it, even if only short-lived.
One study divided college-students' comfort-food identifications into four categories with a special emphasis on the deliberate selection of particular foods to modify mood or affect, and indications that the medical-therapeutic use of particular foods may ultimately be a matter of mood-alteration.
The identification of particular items as comfort food may be idiosyncratic, though patterns are detectable. In one study of American preferences, "males preferred warm, hearty, meal-related comfort foods while females instead preferred comfort foods that were more snack related. In addition, younger people preferred more snack-related comfort foods compared to those over 55 years of age." The study also revealed strong connections between consumption of comfort foods and feelings of guilt.
Comfort food consumption is seen as a response to emotional stress and, consequently, as a key contributor to the epidemic of obesity in the United States. The provocation of specific hormonal responses leading selectively to increases in abdominal fat is seen as a form of self-medication.
Further studies suggest that consumption of comfort food is triggered in men by positive emotions, and by negative ones in women. The stress effect is particularly pronounced among college-aged women, with only 33% reporting healthy eating choices during times of emotional stress. For women specifically, these psychological patterns may be maladaptive.
A therapeutic use of these findings includes offering comfort foods or "happy hour" beverages to anorectic geriatric patients whose health and quality of life otherwise decreases with reduced oral intake.
Comfort foods provide emotional nutrition in the form of familiar tastes and a sense of security in stressful situations, but when taken in large quantities these foods become addictive and impair a person from engaging in new experiences or meeting challenges head-on. A reliance on comfort foods can stifle growth and transition, since the comfort foods are overused during times of transition and distress. The foods that people over-consume during stress periods leads to a state of emotional inertia where people may become resistant to necessary change or adaptation. This reliance on experience rather than interaction with present or upcoming situations eventually stifles the ability to thrive in fluid situations and inhibits the potential for personal growth.

By region

A partial list by region of comfort foods around the world.

Afghanistan

Comfort foods in Afghanistan are:
  • Aushak – stuffed dumplings and sauce
  • Bolani – filled flatbread
  • Borani Banjan or Borani-e-Banjan – baked eggplant with yogurt sauce
  • Borani Kadoo or Borani-e-Kado – sweet and savory braised pumpkin with yogurt sauce
  • Chainaki – lamb stew, traditionally served in a bowl lined with naan, and cooked in a clay vessel known as a chainak
  • Chalaw or Challow – steamed rice with spices
  • Kabuli palaw or Qabuli Pulao – steamed rice with raisins, carrots, and lamb
  • Karahai – meat cooked in a traditional karahi pot
  • Kebab – grilled skewered meat
  • Korma Gosht or Qorma-e-Gosht – braised meat
  • Mantu – meat-stuffed dumpling
  • Naan – flatbread
  • Sabzi Palu – spinach with spices
  • Sher Berinj – rice pudding

    Australia, New Zealand and South Africa

Comfort foods in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa may include:
Austrian comfort foods may include the following foods:
German comfort foods may include the following foods:
  • Arme Ritter
  • Auszogne
  • Bouletten, Frikadellen, Fleischpflanzerl etc.
  • Bratkartoffeln
  • Currywurst
  • Flädlesuppe
  • Fleischsalat
  • Frankfurter
  • Franzbrötchen
  • Gaisburger Marsch
  • Hamburger Aalsuppe
  • Hamburger Labskaus
  • Kartoffelpuffer
  • Käsespätzle
  • Klöße
  • Kohlrouladen
  • Leberkäse
  • Laugenbrezn, Laugengebäck
  • Maultaschen
  • Mett
  • Münchner Weißwürscht
  • Nürnberger Lebkuchen
  • Nürnberger Rostbratwurst
  • Obazda
  • Pichlstoana
  • Regensburger
  • Rote Grütze
  • Rindsrouladen
  • Sauerbraten
  • Saumagen
  • Schwäbische Spätzle
  • Schlachtplatte
  • Schnitzel
  • Schweinshaxn
  • Spanferkel
  • Steckerlfisch
  • Schweinsbraten

    Greece

  • Gemista – stuffed vegetables
  • Gyros – sliced rotisserie meat wrapped in flatbread
  • Keftedakia – meatballs
  • Koulourakia – butter cookies
  • Moussaka – baked eggplant or potato dish
  • Pastitsio – baked pasta dish with minced meat and béchamel sauce
  • Dolmadakia – stuffed leaves
  • Souvlaki – meat on a skewer