Last week, the first quarter of school drew to an end. To the unsuspecting student, the end of the quarter might appear to be a friendly checkpoint for how far we’ve made it into the school year. Do not be fooled; friendly is but a mere façade. Instead, quarter-end meant that as per tradition, every teacher in the school would scheme in the staff room to put all their tests on one dreaded week of school: death week.
On an average planner spread, here’s what death week looks like.
To be fair, death week wasn’t as dramatic as the caption would have you believe, but it’d be a lie not to say that by Wednesday afternoon, there was nothing I wanted to do more than eat a bowl of mac and cheese on the couch and never think about AP Physics ever again.
But why? Why do we crave food when we’re not feeling the best, and how does it help us feel better?
To answer the first part of the question, there’s a psychological reason why many of us reach for so-called “comfort foods” when we’re feeling down and it comes from the associations we have with those foods.
A study performed by Shira Gabriel, an associate professor of psychology at the State University of New York, Buffalo, found that those who had stronger emotional relationships with their parents and peers (those with secure attachment styles) found comfort foods such as chicken soup more satisfying after experiencing some kind of distress. From these results, her team concluded that the comfort that one gets from food is related to previous experiences with that food. Essentially, if a caregiver that you trust feeds you certain foods when you’re young, you start to associate those foods with the feeling of being taken care of, and as you get older, you find yourself reaching for those “comfort foods” to relive that sense of care and belonging.
Now that’s not to say that the food itself doesn’t make us feel better. In fact, a study done by Lukas Van Oudenhove at the University of Leuven in Belgium demonstrated that fatty acids most commonly found in comfort foods are able to activate areas of the brain that respond to changes in mood. This means that comfort foods not only comfort us psychologically, but also cause the stomach to release hormones that tell the brain to feel happier.
So when quarter-end stresses you out, or when AP Physics makes you doubt any shred of intelligence you thought you had, at least you can justify that bowl of mac and cheese as a pick-me-up in the name of science.
Until next time,
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