Why Warm Food is Comfort Food
Acupuncturists and herbalists around the world know that warm food is comfort food and highly recommend warm, well-cooked preferably moist foods. It’s truly the easiest way to improve digestion, strengthen immunity, increase energy, regulate elimination and so much more.
Karen created this mini masterclass to give you a little more insight into how Chinese medicine understands our digestion as a fire and why our Spleen needs easy-to-digest food to fuel our body, mind, and spirit. (Find the full transcript below.)
Because we constantly change, our comfort foods grow and change. Especially if they’re tied to an experience or a person we meet later in life. The best example of this in my life is a hole-in-the-wall Ethiopian restaurant in my hometown called Little Africa (again, the hometown feeling). My wife and I discovered it as we were graduating college and moving away, but we return to it every time we’re home. It’s comfort because, like Real Food, it represents a bit of home and because the food is really damn good. Once, during our first year of marriage, we were both fighting colds and dealing with a difficult day. Our only recourse was dinner at Little Africa, which cured our sniffles and eased our minds.
Our initial definitions of comfort food come from our upbringing, where a simple pastry baked by your grandmother or a certain regional dish comes to represent your entire childhood. For me, this was gravy and mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving, French dip sandwiches at my Grandma Dekker’s house, or banket, a Dutch pastry our family still makes every Christmas.
“It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others.” – M.F.K. Fisher
A couple years ago I was lecturing at Ohio State and my contract ran out. I was losing a job I love, one I had been doing for seven years, and my time there wound down quietly over my final summer semester. During those remaining weeks, I packed up my office bit by bit, finishing over the course of one hot August evening where I loaded boxes of books into my van. In exhaustion, physical and mental, I stopped by Taco Bell on the way home and bought a burrito. It was the simplest thing, but it was a bit of comfort in a time of confusion. (Don’t worry, good things came out of that change.)
Our comfort foods are defined by the places and people, but at times we’re driven to certain foods by a need for comfort. Even in those moments, I’m sure, we’re led by a desire for the familiar.
The science behind comfort foods
FAQ
Why is breakfast food so good?
What makes comfort food so comforting?
Why does comfort food make us happy?
Why is cereal my comfort food?
Why do people eat ‘comfort foods’?
But the calories aren’t what make those foods “comfort foods.” Researchers recently studied the effects of comfort foods and found that people react to them in different ways. What makes the food comforting when we’re lonely or stressed isn’t the calories, but the fact that the foods we turn to remind us of our connections to family and friends.
What should constitute a healthy breakfast?
A healthy breakfast must have the macro and micro nutrients that are present in food sources of carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, vitamins and minerals. For example, a slice of wholemeal bread with egg and butter, a cup of coffee and fruit.
Why do we crave comfort foods?
Swathes of people turn to comfort foods when they’re feeling down, stressed or just need a little pick-me-up. Comfort foods are often associated with carefree memories and can, to some extent, provide a sense of warmth and reassurance. But why do we crave these foods time and time again? And, despite the name, do they actually comfort us?
Does comfort food make you feel better?
Chicken soup, macaroni cheese and chocolate are all comfort foods that we reach for to make us feel better, but is it the ingredients or the feelings we have towards food that makes us crave them? Comfort food is often associated with happy thoughts and memories Not all comfort food is bad for our health when alternative ingredients are used