Comfort Food and Why It Comforts You

Does comfort food fit into your menu when you have the flu? Comfort food serves a purpose, sometimes more than one.

It brings back memories of a happier or safer time. It lets your mind remember feeling better, but sometimes they actually serve another purpose too like chicken soup helping you get past your cold.

However, for our family, many comfort foods are actually dangerous and we’ve had to learn how to re-make them into diabetic-safe recipes. Lets take a look at some of the most common comfort foods.

4 Comfort Foods

Chicken noodle soup – when you’re sick, this staple of the American diet is said to also aid in getting over your illness quicker. There have been studies about the science of chicken noodle soup, but you only have to ask your own grandma if it works or not. Sometimes seeing is believing! This article in the New York Times shares a couple of those studies done with both homemade and commercially produced chicken soups.

Fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy – Apparently, this is a common combination when you’re missing your mom, but for me, macaroni and cheese takes me back to my child hood home, as does a peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich with crunchy cheetos.

Chocolate layer cake – Or any sugary food for when you’re upset. My mother has this as a favorite comfort food, but I can’t say I do. For me, it’s a hot, sweet capuccino from the gas station. It used to be ice cream. If chocolate cake is your comfort of choice, try this recipe book from Amazon.

My ultimate comfort food has to be sausage gravy and buscuits like my great gramma used to make. It was a tradition for me as a child. I’d go every weekend and she’d make this. While not every memory at her house is a good one, the food certainly is a comfort and joy to remember.

Your Favorites?

I’m curious what comfort food means to you, though. For some people it seems to be a control issue. They couldn’t control the negative environment around them, so they eat things they like. For others, it is about a memory that the food (smell and flavor) take them back to. What’s your favorite comfort food and why?