We all have our comfort foods like mashed potatoes, Sloppy Joes, and macaroni and cheese just to name a few favorites. Contrary to popular belief, we generally seek out these "comfort foods" when we are already comfortable. A recent study conducted by the Cornell Food and Brand Lab [1] revealed that people were more likely to seek out comfort foods when they were in upbeat moods - 86% associated comfort food with happiness and 74% used comfort foods to reward themselves. In contrast, 39% of the subjects sought out comfort foods when they were depressed and/or lonely.

Comfort foods help us maintain positive feelings or soothe us. When we're in a bad mood, dishes like macaroni and cheese give a quick bump of euphoria since all those carbs help make serotonin [2] the "happy brain chemical."

Many diets fail because dieters think they need to completely swear off their favorite comfort food forever. I am here to say that is just not the case. Go ahead and reward yourself just pay attention to: the portion size, the emotions behind the eating and experiment with non-food rewards.

Source [3]