Nutrition

Cutting back on chocolate and other indulgences calls for breaking a vicious cycle of comfort eating. Here’s how.

How to break the vicious cycle of comfort eating.

Ahealthy diet is good for our state of mind, new research has revealed. But unfortunately, scientists have also found we’re more likely to crave unhealthy foods when we’re down. So how do we kick the indulgent food habit when we’re feeling low? First, let’s look at new evidence of the psychological benefits of healthy eating. A study by the Food and Mood Centre at Deakin University in Australia found that symptoms were relieved in a third of a group of people with depression who ate a Mediterranean-style diet compared with 8% of a control group who received only social support.

Meanwhile, a University of Otago study has shown that young adults who ate more fruit and vegetables for just two weeks reported a 25% increase in feelings of vitality and well-being.

All well and good. But in one of life’s great ironies, it turns out the very foods we crave when feeling gloomy are those that make us feel that way in the first place. Bah, humbug. US researchers tried a low-tech method to test our predilection for indulgent foods when feeling down. Two Reader’s Digest stories were used to manipulate study participants’ mood. One was a story of success that put readers in a happier frame of mind and the other was about someone who struggled and died tragically, predictably having the opposite effect on readers.

After reading one of the stories, the participants looked at booklets containing advertisements for indulgent foods, such as potato chips and biscuits, and three healthier target foods: granola bars, rice cakes and apples. They then evaluated how appealing the food was.

Those in a positive mood looked more favourably on the healthier foods, whereas those in a negative mood favoured the indulgent foods.

Recent New Zealand research produced similar results. The independent study, commissioned by Sealord, found that half of the respondents were more likely to eat takeaways when feeling emotional. What’s more, after indulging, most reported feeling guilty, putting them in a worse frame of mind and making them even more inclined to eat badly.

So when you’re feeling down and all you crave is indulgent food, how do you motivate yourself to change?

The US research team dug deeper with another trial in which they manipulated participants’ mood and thoughts. As their minds were messed with, they could eat freely from a supply of M&Ms and raisins.

The researchers checked how

much of each snack the participants had eaten after the manipulations and found those in a negative mood preferred indulgent foods, because they were more likely to be focused on immediate concerns, such as feeling better and enjoying the taste. In contrast, people in a positive mood preferred healthy foods, because they were more focused on long-term, higher-level benefits, such as health and well-being.

Chocolate, potato chips and other indulgences aren’t called comfort food for nothing. Giving them up is not as simple as just telling ourselves or others not to eat them, because this doesn’t deal with the cause of discomfort. Instead, we should turn to other ways of improving our mood, such as watching a positive movie, reading a favourite book, listening to cheerful music or talking to a positive friend.

These stimuli can help to boost our mood and hopefully provide enough of a lift that we can start to focus on long-term health and well-being. Then we can start making healthier food choices that will promote better moods and mental health.

Email your nutrition questions to nutrition@ listener.co.nz

We should turn to other ways of improving our mood, such as watching a positive movie.