WEBVTT - The Science of Comfort 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:05.960 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:13.399 Works dot Com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:15.560 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglass. And 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:19.080 if we're rolling into the Thanksgiving season here once again 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:21.960 for those of you celebrate Thanksgiving, we thought we would 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:25.479 roll out an old favorite here that deals with the 0:00:25.560 --> 0:00:30.320 science of something that we're supposedly in the midstop here Thanksgiving, 0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:33.640 and that is comfort and mainly comfort food, right, although 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:36.839 some of us will have some comfort from our family 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:40.400 members and friends and some of us won't. And you 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:43.560 are submitting yourself to this tradition, and we thought, well, heck, 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:45.920 why don't you share this a little bit that we found. 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:51.440 And it's all about leftover turkey and lasik surgery. Yes, yes, 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:55.880 the amazing connection between the origins of lasic surgery and 0:00:55.960 --> 0:01:00.360 your Thanksgiving turkey. Well, let's travel back to the day 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:05.360 after Thanksgiving and Rangoswami Shri Shrine of Boston, who is 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:09.120 a researcher at IBMS, Thomas J. Watson. J. Watson, we 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:12.319 know that research center in New York had brought some 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:15.280 turkey with him to work the next day, right, right, 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:18.840 So he's looking for the the just the right tissue 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:22.080 to experiment on. And then lo and behold, there it is. Yes, 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:25.720 he and his fellow researchers, they found this turkey to 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:30.320 be the absolute perfect tissue to try out a new tool, 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:33.800 which was an argon fluoride or a r f X 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:36.800 nim Er laser. So what did he do. He blasted 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:41.480 his leftover turkey with ten nanosecond pulses of light from 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:44.959 this laser. And and they all had that big Eureka 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:49.360 moment because they realized that it could deliver a clean 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:54.000 incision mark and and the rest is really lasik surgery history. 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:56.600 There you go. So you think about that at the 0:01:56.640 --> 0:01:59.600 thanks even dinner table or the next time you go 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:02.640 under the uh the laser for a little lasic surgery yourself. 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:04.680 I was, I was just thinking, I don't know, maybe 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:06.960 this is something that would be uncomfortable at the dinner table. 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:10.080 You know, you're tucking into your turkey and someone's all like, yeah, 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:14.519 lasic eye surgery, the correct incision, and then every incision 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:17.440 into the turkey becomes on some level insertion into an eyeball. 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:21.760 Yeah yeah, do that share this story? All? Right? So 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:27.640 here we go. We're talking about comfort, and this is 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:31.480 certainly a season of comfort, but comfort food, the feeling 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:33.800 of comfort is something that we we crave, that we 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:37.400 seek out at various times throughout the years. So so 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:40.000 don't run away. If you were listening to this in July, 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:42.800 that's right, because you never know, in Jela you might 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:45.960 need a bit of comfort, cold comfort at that point 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:49.400 from your air conditioner. But um yeah, I mean what 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:51.560 I think about comfort. I think about quilts, I think 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:54.480 about hot cocoa, and I think that some people are 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:58.919 drawn more to comfort than other people. M yeah, I'm 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:01.800 probably about you know, halfway there, doesn't you know. Sure, 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:04.560 I'll take some comfort, but I don't need it. I 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:07.240 mean I really like comfort. I mean I'm pro comfort 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:10.480 because for me, I probably think, you know, and like 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:14.320 a nice warm blanket, that's good, cat on your lap, 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:17.600 that's good hot beverage of some kind. I guess the 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:21.000 comfort I do tend to think of it especially something 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:24.280 I seek out during colder months. Um yeah, which which 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:27.000 also brings to mind, like like chicken soup, something that 0:03:27.040 --> 0:03:30.079 I don't actually nobody really likes chicken soup. I mean, 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:32.920 my wife makes delicious chicken soup, but for the most part. 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:35.800 You're coming at chicken soup out of a sense of 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:38.200 more than just wanting to taste, but you want all 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:41.280 the emotions that come with it and all the all 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:44.600 the ideas about chicken soup that exists culturally. You know. 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:48.320 So already we've talked about several different aspects of comfort, 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:50.960 because really you've got the tactile part of it, and 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:52.680 then you've got the food part of it, and then 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:55.520 the psychology that sort of jells all of it together. Yeah, 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:59.000 because what does it ultimately breakdown to? Um afkan neuroscientists 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:01.440 and they'll say it all comes down to it being 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:04.400 the opposite of stress, which is pretty broad. But yeah, 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:06.280 I think of a thing of time you've been stressed, 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:07.960 thing of the time when you've been comfortable. They're pretty 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:11.600 much polar opposites. Nobody's sitting around biting their nails and 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:14.360 guzzling chicken soup with a blanket wrapped around them while 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:17.840 they watched Gilmore Girls Marathon on TV or something, right, 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:20.080 I mean, it's it's all about very specific and there's 0:04:20.080 --> 0:04:24.600 another aspect because I I know somebody who's who's who 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:27.160 that remember that was their comfort thing, and certainly that's 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:30.280 another aspect of comfort is is media. You know, It's 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:32.520 like there'll be certain certain albums you might put on. 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:34.719 There was like, Yeah, I'm gonna put on some Boards 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:36.640 of Canada and that's for me a very that's a 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:40.200 very comfort minded soundtrack to plug into. Or for some 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:43.359 people it is a Gilmore's Girl Marathon, you know, something 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:46.960 that they that really serves as kind of a replacement 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:52.279 social engagements. Well, for me, Little House from the Prairie. Yeah, 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:56.040 Michael Landon, all the schmaltz, Michael Landon it could ever want, 0:04:56.080 --> 0:04:59.520 because when the world seems cruel and unfair, Michael Landon 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:01.720 is there for you. So what we're talking about are 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:06.840 three principles of comfort, security, reward and connectedness. So I'm 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:09.320 just feeling connected to your fellow man, which might have 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:12.440 something to do with Michael Landon right. Um, And each 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:17.240 of these principles of comfort activate different parts of our brains. 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:21.080 So it would make sense that you have this sort 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:25.320 of big idea of comfort having to do with the tactile, 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:29.400 having to do with food, having to do with music, media, um, 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:32.320 all being rolled up into this one big thing that 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:35.760 comes at the end of November, you know, into our 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:39.000 living rooms. And Thanksgiving. And that's really why we wanted 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:43.680 to cover this topic, because you think about Thanksgiving and 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:47.080 ultimately you think about not just family conflict and uncomfortable 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:50.800 silence around the table, but comfort foods to help ameliorate 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:54.720 all of those feelings of tension with your family. Yes, 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:57.000 uh and comfort food It's it's interesting when you start 0:05:57.240 --> 0:05:59.080 really thinking about not only what it means to you, 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:01.159 because everyone's got their comfort foods, you know, and and 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:03.800 certainly there are some comfort foods that you think of 0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:05.760 a lot. And you think of things like fried chickens 0:06:05.800 --> 0:06:08.400 a comfort food or various uh you know, or a 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:11.839 casserole or what have you. Um, So a lot of 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:15.359 times it's something that your mom made or whoever raised you, 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:17.440 something you grew up with, where when you eat it, 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:19.960 it takes you back to that feeling of safety that 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:23.120 you had as a child being provided for. But then 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:25.599 also a lot of it is cultural to uh. You 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:28.880 say you're of Italian heritage, then your comfort food might 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:31.120 be uh, not not only your mother's food, but your 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:34.920 mother's spaghetti or than anybody's uh particular spaghetti recipe, or 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:36.800 if you're of German heritage, and maybe it's that particular 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:38.920 schnitzel that really does it for you. It really takes 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:41.080 you back and and and and it might be I mean, 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:43.599 God help you. Of schnitzel is what you eat every day. 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:46.760 So it's so it's something that is also a treat. 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:48.479 It's something you don't normally have, and then when you 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:50.960 do have it, it comes in with all this cultural 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:54.720 and personal resonance. It's true if you are reaching out 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:57.760 for a blood sausage and you're German heritage, this might 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:00.359 be just the fix that you need to pick up 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:03.920 your day. Um. Psychologists call comfort food a social surrogate, 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:07.400 as as you've already pointed out in different ways. And 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:11.000 it's interesting because if you look at studies concerning food 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:13.920 and comfort you will find a bevy of them. And 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:16.600 one of the ones that I thought was really interesting 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:19.280 is a study that had to do with people feeling 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:23.360 less lonely after just writing about food. Okay, they didn't 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:26.960 consume anything, and it was specific to comfort food. All right, 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:29.480 This is the two thousand eleven University of Buffalo study. 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:32.280 And so they bring in a bunch of people, set 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:33.920 them down and said, hey, I want you to write 0:07:33.920 --> 0:07:36.800 a little bit about a fight that you had with 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:40.840 with somebody that the relationship with you. I imagine that 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:43.760 most of these are gonna involve like previous relationships or 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:47.600 current spouses that kind of thing, uh, current girlfriend's boyfriends, etcetera. 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:52.640 So they write about this painful, awkward, or traumatic episode 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:55.840 and then put your pencils down now six minutes later, 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:58.240 six minutes later, and now let's flip over the page, 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:00.400 and I want you to write to start right about 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:02.920 about some some comfort foods and about the fried chicken 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:04.680 or the blood sauzage or whatever it may be, right 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:07.200 about some food. Yeah, that's right. Some people were asked 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:09.840 to write about comfort food while other people were asked 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:13.360 to write about a new food experience. Right. So obviously 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:15.400 you see right there, the new food experience doesn't have 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:18.240 all the sorts of emotional attachments to it because it's 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:22.560 a new experience that's not related back to mom or childhood. So, 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:24.720 of course, what do you think the results were? Uh, 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:27.280 the results are probably going to be the comfort food 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:29.240 is the one that really makes the difference in most 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:31.800 of these. Yeah, that's right. What they did is they 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:34.400 took all of the participants took a test after they 0:08:34.920 --> 0:08:39.240 wrote about food when they filled out this questionnaire about loneliness. 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:41.880 It was found that the comfort food, just thinking about 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:44.800 it and writing about it helped those people to self 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:47.480 adjust their moods. Now, there's an important caveat here, and 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:50.840 that is that, uh, generally, the individuals who were aided 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:52.320 by the food, they were in a more or less 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:55.800 good relationship that they just had some some either fighting 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:58.120 in the past or or just a little you know, 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:00.319 fighting in the present. So it's not a situation where 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:03.520 you're going through like you just murdered your spouse the 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:05.400 night before and then for some reason you came in 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:08.080 to do this study and you thought about mashed potatoes 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:10.920 and it fixed everything. No, not not quite. It's not 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:13.560 that powerful. But certainly if you're like, oh, I really 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:16.000 love my wife, but we we just we keep fighting 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:17.920 over what color of the carpet should be. I think 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:19.760 it should be hot pink. She thinks it should be 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:21.760 neon green. We can't come to a decision. We keep 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:24.360 fighting mashed potatoes. Oh what was I What was I 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:27.000 upset about? Well, and I think it's just interesting because 0:09:27.000 --> 0:09:29.360 we've talked about this before, but how just thinking about 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:33.040 things can really change your brain. And we talked about 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:36.360 this before, even in writers who are writing about their 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:40.360 characters and people who are reading of novels that they're 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:44.520 mirror neurons began to activate as though they were throwing 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:49.200 the ball or they were running to to escape someone. So, UM, 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:51.480 what I started to think about is that's really powerful 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:55.000 because a lot of these comfort foods involve fat. And 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:58.760 there's another study that actually looks at fatty foods and 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:02.959 moods and this was UH in the Netherlands, and what 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:07.640 they were doing is they were taking twelve healthy individuals 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:12.160 and they all underwent four forty minute fmr I tests 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:16.440 while listening to music or viewing pictures that induced sad emotions. Now, 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:19.560 at the same time, all of these participants received an 0:10:19.559 --> 0:10:24.560 infusion of either sailing or fatty acids directly into their stomachs. 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:26.680 This is where that the experiment really goes off the rails, 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:28.520 because the other one it's like, Oh, you're writing something 0:10:28.600 --> 0:10:30.840 and thinking about food or or I can imagine signing 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:32.480 up for the study and thinking, oh, or they're just 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:34.800 gonna show at me like a large Vontarier film and 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:37.280 then feed me some mashur tases. But no, they're going 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:39.800 to pump something directly into my stomach after I watch it. 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:43.360 That's in addition to the large Montreier. Yeah yeah, but 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:46.040 what kind of movie theater is that? Yeah? Yeah, I 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:48.360 wonder if they did show Melancolio through them, because that 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:50.640 would be a really great film to try to and 0:10:51.200 --> 0:10:54.560 induce sadness. I have to say, um, but all all 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:58.080 of the participants had completed a twelve hour fast, so 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:00.600 they came with empty stomachs, and they had no idea 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:04.080 what it was that was being put into their stomachs. Okay, 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:07.040 So the results indicated that subjects who received the fatty 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:10.800 infusion were less sad when viewing sad pictures or listening 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:13.360 to sad music. And then the fmm f m r 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:17.880 I tests confirmed fewer neural responses to sadness in several 0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:21.679 areas of the brain in this group. Wow. Again, I'm 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:24.000 still overwhelmed just by the weirdness of the experiment though. 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:26.240 But but I guess it was important because they wanted 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:28.559 to cut out the actual eating of the food, and 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:30.800 I don't know, maybe they just really wanted to pump 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:33.960 stuff directly into the gut. Well, and what they were 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:36.120 also trying to do is to say, hey, there's it's 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:38.400 not just the mind body link. It is the body 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:40.679 mind link. And we've talked about this before in our 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:43.480 podcast about whether or not our guts are really our 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:46.079 second brains, right, And then of course when we're they 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:48.800 really wanted to look at the nutritional intake and when 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:51.000 you eat food. I mean, it's a no brainer, but 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:53.120 there's a lot going on. It's about it's about smelling 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:55.480 the food that you're eating. It's about the texture. I 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:57.640 mentioned mashed potatoes, and it's true a lot of a 0:11:57.640 --> 0:11:59.600 lot of the comfort foods you encounter, it's like a 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:02.920 cream me kind of consistency to it. Um. I mean, 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:05.480 some people may have beef jerky as a comfort food, 0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:07.400 that's great, but a lot of comfort foods are kind 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:09.680 of like a smooth, easy to eat kind of a thing. 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:12.280 And again just having a story about that food as well. 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:15.600 You can circumvent that by just pumping stuff directly into 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:17.679 the stomach. It's also worth noting on that two thousand 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:20.840 eleven University of Buffalo study, they also had another experiment 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:24.400 where they found that eating chicken soup in the lab 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:27.680 made people think more about relationships. If they consider chicken 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:30.160 soup to be a comfort food, which again comes down 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:33.160 to my argument that chicken soup, even when it's really good, 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:36.400 isn't really great because it's chicken soup. That's all about 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:38.000 the idea of it. Because like when I think of 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:40.960 chicken soup, I think of I'm I was, I'm feeling bad, 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:42.880 I'm feeling I mean, you know, I'm under the weather, 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:45.560 and like my mom makes me chicken soup. It's like 0:12:45.600 --> 0:12:48.280 it's the you can taste the love, right, It's somebody 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:50.839 making the time, taking the time to make this dish. 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:53.760 That is all about please get better and feel better 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:55.679 because someone loves you. And I feel the same way, 0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:57.680 like when my wife makes it for me when I 0:12:57.760 --> 0:12:59.880 whenever i'm ill. You know what's funny about that is 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:03.840 my mom doesn't cook, never really has cooked. So but 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:06.280 I have the same feelings about chicken soup even though 0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:08.959 I don't consume it now because she make it. No, 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:10.920 I was gonna say, I can look at a can 0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:14.080 of Campbell's, I feel a little warm cockles in the 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:16.000 heart there. Well yeah, well, you know I think my 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:17.880 mom I could be wrong in this, and I'm sure 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:20.040 she'll correct me when she hears this, But I think 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:22.040 it would like she would do like canned chicken soup 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:23.840 as well, because I mean she was busy as you did. 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:25.320 I'm trying to make a bunch of you know, who 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:27.480 has time to make like chicken stock from scratch in 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:28.960 this day in war and day and age. But I'm 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:30.600 pretty sure that was canned as well. But still it 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:32.600 was this was a thing that you had when you 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:34.439 were sick, and if you had it and then somebody 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:37.800 loved you enough to at least open a can. And 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:40.840 that was the truth, not boiled down the chicken carcass 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:44.640 for hours and create fresh chicken stock. Hey man, she 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:47.240 she did many other things, I would say to help 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:49.400 me feel better. And I should also mention that, alright. 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:53.040 The eleven University of Bubble study, you mentioned the distinction 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:56.400 between people writing about new food experiences and people writing 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:59.000 about food experiences that they had all this comfort and 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:02.200 all these creations for. But in some cases you do 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:06.199 encounter people's comfort foods that are associated with new discoveries, 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:10.560 because ultimately, like food is his very personal and also 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:13.520 kind of selfish thing, you know, So in some cases 0:14:13.559 --> 0:14:15.240 it will be something that that we see as a 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:17.760 personal discovery. One of the articles I was looking at. 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:19.760 I think it was a psychology today they mentioned, um, 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:24.000 the writer's husband went crazy for Sharako, like Sharaka on anything, 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:26.440 it was a comfort food. Um. And certainly you get 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:29.320 some spicy and some sweet in there, and sharak is amazing. 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:31.720 But it's his whole thing was that this was something 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:34.360 he had discovered, This was something that was totally totally 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:37.320 him and didn't necessarily have a connection with with his 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:40.200 upbringing or his past. No, he just discovered that it 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:42.720 was making the reward part of his brain go ding 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:44.920 ding ding, really because he was getting a little bit 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:47.800 euphoric with a spice there. Um. And I also think 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:50.960 that too with new experiences and food. You know, you'll 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:53.480 pin that a lot of times to travel. So you know, 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:56.320 sometimes I'll think about things that I've eaten and I 0:14:56.360 --> 0:14:59.560 will elevate them to the highest level because I think, oh, 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:02.000 that have that in Italy or whatever, and it may 0:15:02.000 --> 0:15:04.480 not even actually be that great. Yeah, but you still, 0:15:04.680 --> 0:15:07.120 again it comes down to why pump this stuff directly 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:10.760 into the the test subject stomach, Because again, food comes 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:12.600 to us with a story, food comes as to us 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:14.680 with a smell, with a texture, and all of these 0:15:14.720 --> 0:15:18.880 things that go beyond near nutrition, and what we're talking 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:22.200 about here too is really gaming a sense of comfort. 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:25.280 Of course, there is the food industry which is really 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:29.240 interesting in this idea of tweaking moods through food. At 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:33.600 the national meeting of the American Chemical Society, Karina Martinez 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:37.240 Majorga presented the latest findings from her ongoing study of 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:40.040 the effect of various food flavors on mood. And it 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:44.280 turns out that molecules in chocolate, a variety of berries, 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:49.120 and then foods containing Omega three fatty acids positively affect mood. 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:51.520 Um it was found, and this is really interesting. It 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:54.040 was found that the chemical components of these food flavors 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:58.960 are structurally similar to something called valporic acid, and this 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:03.360 is the primary ingredient. It's several pharmaceutical mood stabilizers. Of course. 0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:06.440 The research was supported in part by a food flavor company, 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:13.280 France based uh Roberte uh Flavors, and the scientists say 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:17.480 that food industry companies are joining pharmaceutical companies in the 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:23.320 quest for natural mood boosters. So they're not intending this 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:28.080 as a replacement for you know, for treating clinical depression, 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:30.240 but they are saying like, maybe this could give you 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:34.040 a little extra pep in your step, right, I mean, well, 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:36.160 certainly there are a lot of fine arguments out there 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:39.920 that that a lot of problems with health and even 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:43.000 mental health um to a certain degree, can be treated 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:45.920 through a proper diet and an informed diet. But again, yeah, 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:47.600 I think of what comfort foods tend to be. They 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:50.760 didn't be soft, They can't be sweet, smooth, salty, and 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:54.360 uh like we mentioned sugar and starch. They spur serotonin, 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:56.760 your transmitter known to increase a sense of well being, 0:16:57.240 --> 0:17:02.200 like prozac. Um Salty foods for oxytocin, the cuttle chemical 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:04.000 that we talk about a lot that we also get 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:07.480 from hugs and orgasm. So you know that's that's that 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:11.399 explains the saltiness there. Um fat is a good bomb 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:14.680 for the fear of starvation. So again we think back 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:19.320 to our naked caveman running through the Sengetti chase by 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:21.679 savor tooth tigers, the scenario that may or may not 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:24.520 actually pan out. Actually I mean on that too much, 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:27.639 but but still the idea that on a very primal level, 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:29.840 we are creatures that are having to run fast to 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:32.000 get away from something or run fast to catch something. 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:34.800 We need the energy, we need the fat. So that's 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:36.600 why the fat is such a bomb for fear we're 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:38.120 not gonna starve, if we're not going to be eaten 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:41.080 on a very primitive level. You know that drives home well. 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:43.040 And you know, it's interesting that you mentioned the fat 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:45.320 because it takes me back to the podcast that we 0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:48.920 did on gluttony and all of that research about how 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:53.600 when we lose weight, our body actually begins to game 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:56.520 the body to to try to get back at the 0:17:56.560 --> 0:18:00.280 old level because of this fear of losing fat. And 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:02.760 in fact, people who lose I think it was something 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:06.800 like of their body weight have to exercise even harder 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:09.680 than their counterpart who didn't lose weight, but they weigh 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:13.400 the same amount um simply because the body won't burn 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:15.920 as many calories because again it wants to get back 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:19.119 to that set weight that it knows, and it also 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:22.880 begins to crave more fatty foods. Yeah, and we've, as 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:25.520 we've discussed before and as a and as countless food 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:28.040 documentaries point out, we live in an age now where 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:30.320 all the fat you want just walk down to the 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:32.600 storm by all of the salty you want i'll sweet 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:35.560 you want. Generally, all these things are actually available in 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:38.000 one bag at your local fast food restaurant. But of 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:41.040 course we didn't evolve into that scenario. You know, that's 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:46.080 not that's not the natural availability of these various elements. Yeah. 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:48.639 I actually saw something the other day. It was it 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:50.320 was about weight loss and a group of people who 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:54.399 had lost weight, and it said we'll work for less food. 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:56.600 And I thought, well, if that's not a commentary on 0:18:56.760 --> 0:18:58.879 the abundance of food in the world right now, as 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:01.399 well as a commentaryans mother stuff, I don't know what 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:06.040 is um. Then again, we're talking about this concept of 0:19:06.280 --> 0:19:10.760 gaming comfort, and you guys out there are probably familiar 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:12.400 with this study because I think it got a lot 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:17.080 of play, But this idea that comfort also comes externally 0:19:17.320 --> 0:19:20.879 so and actually affects our moods in ways that we 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:23.880 might just make favorable decisions about others. And what I'm 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:29.399 talking about is um the warm Mug of liquid study. 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:32.200 Do you know when I'm talking about where the participants 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:35.960 were given a warm mug of coffee, I believe to 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:39.560 hold just for a few moments and to think about 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:44.720 someone that they may not have particularly have warm feelings 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:48.520 about but talk about them as they were holding the 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:55.080 warm cup. And then participants were given uh an iced 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:58.120 coffee to hold. Okay, so now they were holding something 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:01.520 that's cold. And so turns out that those people who 0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:05.280 held the months of hot Joe, we're much more likely 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:08.919 to perceive others as having warmer personality traits. Well, this 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:11.400 is it. Basically, this is the hot coco phenomenon here 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:14.760 because with hot cocoa, well, first of all, you getting 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:17.159 that chocolate that's sweets, so you're you're turning on some 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:20.360 various neuro transmitters there. Uh. Some people like like their 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:23.720 their hot chocolate little salty, so you've got that going on, uh, 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:26.960 giving you a little little oxy cocin. And then of 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:29.360 course it is a warm mug of goodness that you're 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:32.640