Stress, upheaval steer people away from comfort foods

WASHINGTON - Stress and upheaval actually seem to steer people away from comfort foods and prompt them to choose less-familiar items.

“Most of us can name our favourite ‘comfort foods’ and believe that we are most prone to seek them out during times of stress and upheaval,” writes study author Stacy Wood, University of South Carolina (USC).

However, this research shows the surprising result that our choices of old favourites happen at the opposite times that we predict.

In the first study, participants were told about a person who was described as either being in an extremely stable life situation or in the midst of many changes.

Researchers asked them to predict whether these people would choose a popular American potato chip or an unknown British potato “crisp” in exotic flavours like Camembert and Plum.

Participants thought the stable person would have more time and energy to try new things and would choose the new item.

Then in a separate choice study, researchers asked participants to rate the level of change in their own lives and then to choose snacks.

Those experiencing more change chose the newer snacks. “This result is called the ‘comfort food fallacy’ effect. It does not say that comfort foods are not enjoyable, but rather that we don’t seem to seek them out when we think we do,” according to an USC release.

“Contrary to our expectations, comfort foods appear to be chosen more often in comfortable times,” says Wood.

The study has broad implications for people contemplating life changes. “Many people believe they shouldn’t try too many new things at once,” Woods says.

“For example, they may believe that a time of change is not a good time to start a new exercise programme. This research suggests that a time of change (new job, new town, new situation) may be an ideal time to adopt desired changes because we are inherently more open to new options then,” Wood concludes.

These findings were published in the Journal of Consumer Research.