How many of us follow up a bad day at the office with a calorie-laden junk fest? And how many of us brush off the inevitable guilt that follows, because comfort food is the only solution to your woes?

Us too. But it looks like the only ones we’re fooling are ourselves!

According to new research, the foods that we have come to consider as “comfort foods” may actually have no impact upon our mood whatsoever.

The interesting finding was made by US researchers, who carried out an experiment on 100 students, testing out the changes in their mood when presented with comfort and non-comfort foods.

After first lowering the students’ spirits by making them watch sad movies, the researchers then presented the first half of their subjects with the foods that they considered to be comforting; they presented the other half with healthier foods that didn’t traditionally fall under the “comforting” category.

It was found that, after 15 minutes, all subjects were in a better mood, despite what they had been given to snack on.

The next phase of the experiment saw the researchers providing the first half of their subjects with more comfort food, but this time around, giving nothing at all to the other half. Surprisingly, they found that their results were the same as the first stage: all students felt equally cheered up.

In conclusion, the authors of the research report have found that the foods that we tend to consider as “comfort foods” may actually have no effect at all on our mood.

As interesting as this finding is, we’re not going to think twice about reaching for the Haagen-Dazs during the Valentine’s Day/ The Notebook sob-fest!