Turns out comfort food isn’t as effective as we thought!
You've had a bad day at work. Your bus home decided not to show up, leaving you trudging through the rain and wind with a half broken umbrella. And to top it all off, that guy from Tinder has mysteriously stopped messaging you.
Sometimes, a salad for dinner just isn't going to cut it. On days like this, we need to call in the big guns. And by that we mean, the pizza delivery men.
When we're feeling fed up, turning to comfort food like chocolate and carbs seems like the best solution. But new research has shown that what we eat really has no bearing on how quickly we recover from a bad mood.
As part of the study, published in the Health Psychology journal, participants were shown an 18-minute video that sparked feelings of anxiety, fear and depression. Afterwards, one group were given their preferred comfort food, others snacked on a granola bar, while the final group weren't given any food at all.
The result? Turns out their moods all returned to normal within the same time range, regardless of what they had eaten. "You don’t need comfort food to feel better; the mind will do the trick all on its own if you give it time," said the researchers behind the study.
It's definitely something to consider next time you reach for that Dominos menu – but if you're anything like us you'll order it anyway!