WEBVTT - The Science of Comfort 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:06.720 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how stuff 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:13.840 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:16.200 My name is Robert Lamp and I'm Julie Douglas, and 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:19.720 we're coming at you around Thanksgiving if you're listening to 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:22.799 this as it publishes. But we're talking about comfort, and 0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:26.080 this is certainly a season of comfort, but comfort food, 0:00:26.560 --> 0:00:29.000 the feeling of comfort is something that we we crave, 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:32.200 that we seek out at various times throughout the year. 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:35.040 So so don't run away if you're listening to this 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:37.920 in July, that's right, because you never know. In July 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:41.080 you might need a bit of comfort, cold comfort at 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:44.120 that point from your air conditioner. But um, yeah, I 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:46.839 mean what I think about comfort. I think about quilts, 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:49.120 I think about how Coco, and I think that some 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:52.880 people are drawing more to comfort than other people. M 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:56.240 M yeah, I'm probably about, you know, halfway there. It 0:00:56.240 --> 0:00:58.480 doesn't you know. Sure I'll take some comfort, but I 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:01.600 don't need it. I mean, I really like comfort. I 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:05.560 mean I'm pro comfort because for me, I probably think, 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:08.479 you know, and like a nice warm blanket, that's good 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:12.440 cat on your lap, that's good hot beverage of some kind. 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:15.440 I guess the comfort I do tend to think of it, 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:19.080 especially something I seek out during colder months. Um. Yeah, 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:21.960 which which also brings to mind like like chicken soup, 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:25.240 something that I don't Actually nobody really likes chicken soup. 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:27.760 I mean, my wife makes delicious chicken soup, but for 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:30.440 the most part, you're coming at chicken soup out of 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:33.000 a sense of more than just wanting to taste, but 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:35.840 you want all the emotions that come with it and 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:38.640 all the all all the ideas about chicken soup that 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:42.119 exists culturally. You know. So already we've talked about several 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:45.319 different aspects of comfort, because really you've got the tactile 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:47.680 part of it, and then you've got the food part 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:49.720 of it, and then the psychology that sort of jells 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:52.080 all of it together. Yeah, because what does it ultimately 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:55.280 break down to? Um Asking neuroscientists, and they'll say it 0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:58.120 all comes down to it being the opposite of stress, 0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:00.640 which is for pretty broad but yeah, I think of 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:02.000 a thing of time you've been stressed, thing of the 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:04.640 time when you've been comfortable. They're pretty much polar opposites. 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:08.200 Nobody's sitting around biting their nails and guzzling chicken soup 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:10.880 with a blanket wrapped around them while they watched Gilmore 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:13.720 Girls Marathon on TV or something, right. I mean, it's 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:18.080 it's all about very specific and that's another aspect because 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:21.080 I I know somebody who's Who's who that remember that 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:23.640 was their comfort thing, And certainly that's another aspect of 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:26.480 comfort is media. You know, it's like there'll be certain 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:28.639 certain albums you might put on it. It It was like, yeah, 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:31.160 I'm gonna put on some Boards of Canada and that's 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:34.200 for me a very that's a very comfort minded soundtrack 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:36.640 to plug into. Or for some people it is a 0:02:36.639 --> 0:02:40.400 Gilmore's Girl Marathon, you know, something that they that really 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:45.640 serves as kind of a replacement social engagements. Well for me, 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:48.840 little House from the Prairie. Yeah, yeah, Michael Landon, all 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:52.120 the schmaltz Michael Landon it could ever want, because when 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:55.399 the world seems cruel and unfair, Michael Landon is there 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:58.120 for you. So what we're talking about are three principles 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:03.120 of comfort, security, ward and connectedness. So we're feeling connected 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:05.440 to your fellow man, which might have something to do 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:09.840 with Michael Landon right, um, And each of these principles 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:13.760 of comfort activate different parts of our brains. So it 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:17.720 would make sense that you have this sort of big 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:21.160 idea of comfort having to do with the tactile, having 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:24.920 to do with food, having to do with music, media, um, 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:27.840 all being rolled up into this one big thing that 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:31.200 comes at the end of November, you know, into our 0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:34.480 living rooms and Thanksgiving. And that's really why we wanted 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:39.160 to cover this topic, because you think about Thanksgiving and 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:42.600 ultimately you think about not just family conflict and uncomfortable 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:46.279 silence around the table, but comfort foods to help ameliorate 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:50.160 all of those feelings of tension with your family. Yes, 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:53.040 uh and comfort food It's it's interesting we start really 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:54.839 thinking about not only what it means to you, because 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:57.160 everyone's got their comfort foods, you know, and certainly there 0:03:57.200 --> 0:03:59.760 are some comfort foods that you think of a lot 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:01.360 of you think of things like fried chicken as a 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:04.240 comfort food or various uh you know, or a casse 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:07.360 role or what have you. Um. So, a lot of 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:10.880 times it's something that your mom made or whoever raised you, 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:12.960 something you grew up with, where when you eat it, 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:15.480 it takes you back to that feeling of safety that 0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:18.640 you had as a child being provided for but then 0:04:18.640 --> 0:04:21.080 also a lot of it is cultural to uh you 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:24.400 say you're of Italian heritage, then your comfort food might 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:26.640 be uh not not only your mother's food, but your 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:30.440 mother's spaghetti or than anybody's uh particular spaghetti recipe, or 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:32.320 if you're of German heritage, and maybe it's that particular 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:34.440 schnitzel that really does it for you. It really takes 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:36.599 you back and and and it might be, I mean, 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:39.120 God help you, of schnitzel is what you eat every day. 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:42.240 So it's so it's something that is also a treat. 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:43.960 It's something you don't normally have, and then when you 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:46.480 do have it, it comes in with all this cultural 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:50.279 and personal resonance. It's true if you are reaching out 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:53.279 for a blood sausage and your German heritage, this might 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:55.839 be just the fix that you need to pick up 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:59.600 your day. Um. Psychologists call comfort food a social surrogates, 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:03.520 as you already pointed out in different ways. And it's 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:06.599 interesting because if you look at studies concerning food and 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:09.960 comfort you will find a bevy of them. And one 0:05:10.000 --> 0:05:12.960 of the ones that I thought was really interesting is 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:15.239 a study that had to do with people feeling less 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:19.800 lonely after just writing about food. Okay, they didn't consume anything, 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:22.560 and it was specific to comfort food. All right. This 0:05:22.600 --> 0:05:24.960 is a two thousand and eleven University of Buffalo study. 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:27.440 And so they bring in a bunch of people, so 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:29.159 set them down and said, hey, I want you to 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:31.599 write a little bit about a fight that you had 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:36.040 with with somebody that the relationship with you. I imagine 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:39.160 that most of these are gonna involve like previous relationships 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:43.120 or current spouses that kind of thing, uh, current girlfriend's boyfriends, etcetera. 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:48.160 So they write about this painful, awkward or traumatic episode 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:51.320 and then put your pencils down. Now. Six minutes later, 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:53.800 six minutes later, and now let's flip over the page, 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:55.920 and I want you to write to start writing about 0:05:56.200 --> 0:05:58.400 about some some comfort foods and about the fried chicken 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:00.279 or the blood sauces or whatever it may be. Write 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:02.720 about some food. Yeah, that's right. Some people were asked 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:05.360 to write about comfort food, while other people were asked 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:08.880 to write about a new food experience. Right, So obviously 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:10.880 you see right there, the new food experience doesn't have 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:13.720 all the sorts of emotional attachments to it because it's 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:17.680 a new experience. It's not related back to mom or childhood. 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:20.280 So of course, what do you think the results were. Uh, 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:22.520 the results are probably going to be that the comfort 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:24.520 food is the one that really makes the difference in 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:27.120 most of these Yeah, that's right. What they did is 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:29.720 they took all of the participants took a test after 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:33.560 they wrote about food, when they filled out this questionnaire 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:36.680 about loneliness. It was found that the comfort food, just 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:39.760 thinking about it and writing about it helped those people 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:42.880 to self adjust their moods. Now, there's an important caveat here, 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:46.080 and that is that, Uh, generally the individuals who were 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:47.520 aided by the food, they were in a more or 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:50.960 less good relationship that they just had some some either 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:53.640 fighting in the past or or just a little you know, 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:55.839 fighting in the present. So it's not a situation where 0:06:56.440 --> 0:06:59.000 you're going through like you just murdered your spouse to 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:00.960 night before and then some reason you came in to 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:03.640 do this study and you thought about mashed potatoes and 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:07.240 it fixed everything. No, not not quiet, It's not that powerful. 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:09.640 But certainly if you're like, oh, I really love my wife, 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:12.160 but we we just we keep fighting over what color 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:13.880 of the carpet should be. I think it should be 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:16.000 hot pink, she thinks it should be Neon Green. We 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:18.560 can't come to a decision. We keep fighting mashed potatoes. 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:21.360 Oh what was I? What was I upset about? Well? 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:23.120 And I think it's just interesting because we've talked about 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:26.280 this before, but how just thinking about things can really 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:29.440 change your brain. And we talked about this before, even 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:33.400 in writers who are writing about their characters and people 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:37.240 who are reading of novels that they are mirror neurons 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:40.440 began to activate as though they were throwing the ball 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:44.760 or they were running to to escape someone. So um, 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:47.000 what I started to think about is that's really powerful 0:07:47.000 --> 0:07:50.480 because a lot of these comfort foods involve fat. And 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:54.240 there's another study that actually looks at fatty foods and 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:58.680 moods and this was in the Netherlands, and what they 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:04.120 were doing is they were taking twelve healthy individuals and 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:07.920 they all underwent four forty minute fmr I tests while 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:11.960 listening to music or viewing pictures that induced sad emotions. Now, 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:15.080 at the same time, all of these participants received an 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:20.000 infusion of either sailing or fatty acids directly into their stomachs. 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:21.880 This is where that the experiment really goes off the 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:23.800 rails because the other one, it's like, oh, you're writing 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:26.000 something and thinking about food, or or I can imagine 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:27.840 signing up for the study and thinking, oh, or they're 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:29.960 just gonna show at me like a large ventreer film 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:32.680 and then feed me some mashed potatoes. But no, they're 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:34.920 going to pump something directly into my stomach after I 0:08:34.920 --> 0:08:37.960 watch it. That's in addition to the large one treier. 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:41.400 Yeah yeah, but what kind of movie theaters that Yeah, yeah, 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:43.800 I wonder if they did show Melancolia through them, because 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:45.720 that would be a really great film to try to 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:50.040 induce sadness. I have to say, um, but all all 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:53.440 of the participants had um completed a twelve hour fast, 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:55.719 so they came with empty stomachs and they had no 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:59.560 idea what it was that was being put into their stomachs. Okay, 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:02.120 So there was alts indicated that subjects who received the 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:05.960 fatty infusion were less sad when viewing sad pictures or 0:09:06.000 --> 0:09:08.679 listening to sad music. And then the fmm f m 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:12.920 r I tests confirmed fewer neural responses to sadness in 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:16.800 several areas of the brain in this group. Wow. Again, 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:19.320 I'm still overwhelmed just by the weirdness of the experiment. 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:21.760 But but I guess it was important because they wanted 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:24.040 to cut out the actual eating of the food, and 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:26.320 I don't know, maybe they just really wanted to pump 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:29.760 stuff directly into the gut. Well, what they were also 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:31.760 trying to do is to say, hey, there's it's not 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:34.480 just the mind body link, it is the body mind link. 0:09:34.520 --> 0:09:37.000 And we've talked about this before in our podcast about 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:40.199 whether or not our guts are really our second brains, right, 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:42.160 And then of course when we're they really wanted to 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:45.000 look at the nutritional intake and when you eat food. 0:09:45.400 --> 0:09:47.000 I mean, it's a no brainer, but there's a lot 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:49.240 going on. It's about it's about smelling the food that 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:52.000 you're eating. It's about the texture. I mentioned mashed potatoes, 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:53.480 and it's true a lot of a lot of the 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:56.120 comfort foods you encounter, it's like a creamy kind of 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:59.160 consistency to it. Um. I mean, some people may have 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:01.640 beef jerky as a comfort food. That's great, but a 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:03.720 lot of comfort foods are kind of like a smooth, 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:05.880 easy to eat kind of a thing. And again, just 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:08.440 having a story about that food as well, you can 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:11.600 circumvent that by just pumping stuff directly into the stomach. 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:13.920 It's also worth noting on that two thousand eleven University 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:18.000 of Buffalo study, they also had another experiment where they 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:20.640 found that eating chicken soup in the lab made people 0:10:20.679 --> 0:10:23.560 think more about relationships if they consider chicken soup to 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:25.880 be a comfort food, which again comes down to my 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:29.200 argument that chicken soup, even when it's really good, isn't 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:31.880 really great because it's chicken soup if it's all about 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:33.520 the idea of it, Because like when I think of 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:36.440 chicken soup, I think of I'm I was, I'm feeling bad, 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:38.400 I'm feeling I mean there, you know, I'm under the weather, 0:10:38.679 --> 0:10:41.040 and like my mom makes me chicken soup. It's like 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:43.800 it's the you can taste the love, right, It's somebody 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:46.360 making the time, taking the time to make this dish 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:49.280 that is all about, please get better and feel better 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:51.199 because someone loves you. And I feel the same way, 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:53.200 like when my wife makes it for me when I 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:55.400 whenever i'm ill. You know it's funny about that is 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:59.000 that my mom doesn't cook, never really has cooked, so 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:01.600 but I have the same feelings about chicken soup even 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:04.719 though I don't consume it now, because no, I was 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:07.120 gonna say I could look at a can of Campbell's 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:10.000 and feel a little warm cockles in the heart there. 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:12.120 Well yeah, well, you know, I think my mom I 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:13.960 could be wrong in this, and I'm sure she'll correct 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:15.920 me when she hears this, but I think it would 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:17.800 like she would do like canned chicken soup as well, 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:19.480 because I mean she was busy as she did. I'm 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:21.040 trying to make a bunch of you know, who has 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:23.040 time to make like chicken stock from scratch in this 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:24.720 day in war and day and age. But I'm pretty 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:26.280 sure that was canned as well. But still it was 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:28.480 this was a thing that you had when you were sick, 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:30.320 and if you had it and then somebody loved you 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:33.720 enough to at least open a can, and that was 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:36.520 the truth. If not boiled down the chicken carcass for 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:40.200 hours and create fresh chicken stock, hey man, she she 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:42.800 did many other things I would say to help me 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:44.920 feel better. And I should also mention that, all right. 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:48.560 The eleven University of Bubble study, you mentioned the distinction 0:11:48.600 --> 0:11:51.880 between people writing about new food experiences and people writing 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:54.520 about food experiences that they had all this comfort and 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:57.720 all these associations for but in some cases you do 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:01.679 encounter people's comfort foods that are associated with new discoveries 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:06.080 because ultimately, like food is his very personal and also 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:09.000 kind of selfish thing, you know, so in some cases 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:10.720 it will be something that that we see as a 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:13.280 personal discovery. One of the articles I was looking at, 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:15.280 I think it was a psychology today, they mentioned, um, 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:19.120 the writer's husband went crazy for Sharaka, Like sharaka and 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:21.719 anything it was a comfort food. Um. And certainly you 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:24.120 get some spicy and some sweet in there, and sharak 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:26.840 is amazing, But it's his whole thing was that this 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:28.680 was something he had discovered. This was something that was 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:32.599 totally totally him and didn't necessarily have a connection with 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:35.360 with his upbringing or his past. No, he just discovered 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:37.840 that it was making the reward part of his brain 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:40.079 go ding ding ding, really because he was getting a 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:42.760 little bit euphoric with a spice there. Um. And I 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:46.240 also think that too with new experiences and food, you know, 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:48.720 you'll pin that a lot of times to travel. So 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:51.040 you know, sometimes I'll think about things that I've eaten 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:54.520 and I will elevate them to the highest level because 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:57.079 I think, oh, that I had that in Italy or whatever, 0:12:57.160 --> 0:12:59.360 and it may not even actually be that great. Yeah, 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:01.520 but you still Again, it comes down to why I 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:05.559 pump this stuff directly into the test subject stomach, Because again, 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:07.800 food comes to us with a story, food comes as 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:09.880 to us with a smell, with a texture on all 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:13.920 of these things that go beyond near nutrition. And what 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:17.080 we're talking about here too is really gaming a sense 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:20.360 of comfort. Of course, there is the food industry which 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:24.040 is really interesting in this idea of tweaking moods through food. 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:28.240 At the national meeting of the American Chemical Society, Karina 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:32.600 Martinez Mayorga presented the latest findings from her ongoing study 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:35.440 of the effect of various food flavors on mood. And 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:39.800 it turns out that molecules in chocolate, a variety of berries, 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:44.640 and then foods containing omega free fatty acids positively affect mood. 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:47.000 Um it was found, and this is really interesting. It 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:49.520 was found that the chemical components of these food flavors 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:54.480 are structurally similar to something called valporic acid, and this 0:13:54.559 --> 0:13:58.880 is the primary ingredient in several pharmaceutical mood stabilizers. Of course, 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:01.559 the research was supported in part by a food flavor 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:08.439 company France based uh Roberte UH Flavors, and the scientists 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:12.840 say that food industry companies are joining pharmaceutical companies in 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:18.320 the quest for natural mood boosters. So they're not intending 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:22.440 this as a replacement for you know, for for treating 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:25.480 clinical depression, but they are saying like, maybe this could 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:29.120 give you a little extra pep in your step, right, 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:30.840 I mean, well, certainly there are a lot of fine 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:34.760 arguments out there that that a lot of problems with 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:37.280 health and even mental health um to a certain degree, 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:40.560 can be treated through a proper diet and an informed diet. 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:42.760 But again, yeah, I think of what comfort foods tend 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:45.960 to be. They can't be soft. They can be sweet, smooth, salty, 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:49.880 and uh like we mentioned sugar and starch. They spur serotonin, 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:52.280 your transmitter known to increase the sense of well being 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:57.680 like prozac. Um. Salty foods spur oxytocin, the cuttle chemical 0:14:57.760 --> 0:14:59.520 that we talk about a lot that we also get 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:03.040 from hugs an orgasm, So you know, that's that's that 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:06.920 explains the saltiness there. Um fat is a good bomb 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:10.200 for the fear of starvation. So again you think back 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:14.840 to our naked caveman running through the Serengetti chase by 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:17.160 savor tooth tigers, a scenario that may or may not 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:20.360 actually pan out. Actually me on that too much, but 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:23.120 but still the idea that on a very primal level, 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:25.360 we are creatures that are having to run fast to 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:27.520 get away from something or run fast to catch something. 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:30.320 We need the energy, We need the fat. So that's 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:32.120 why the fat is such a bomb for fear we're 0:15:32.120 --> 0:15:33.640 not gonna starve, if we're not going to be eaten 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:36.560 on a very primitive level. You know that drives home well. 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:38.520 And you know, it's interesting that you mentioned the fat 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:40.840 because it takes me back to the podcast that we 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:44.400 did on gluttony and all of that research about how 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:49.080 when we lose weight, our body actually begins to game 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:52.040 the body to to try to get back at the 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:55.760 old level because of this fear of losing fat. And 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:58.280 in fact, people who lose I think it was something 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:02.520 of their body weight have to exercise even harder than 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:05.320 their counterpart who didn't lose weight, but they weigh the 0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:09.080 same amount um simply because the body won't burn as 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:11.520 many calories because again, it wants to get back to 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:15.080 that set weight that it knows, and it also begins 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:18.440 to crave more fatty foods. Yeah, and we, as we 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:21.560 discussed before, and as it and as countless food documentaries 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:24.160 point out, we live in an age now where all 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:26.080 the fat you want just walk down to the storm 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:28.880 by it. All of salty you want, I'll sweet you want. Generally, 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:31.760 all these things are actually available in one bag at 0:16:31.800 --> 0:16:34.120 your local fast food restaurant. But of course we didn't 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:37.320 evolve into that scenario. You know, that's not that's not 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:42.280 the natural availability of these various elements. Yeah. Actually saw 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:44.760 something the other day. It was it was about weight 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:46.800 loss and a group of people who had had lost weight, 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:50.560 and it said, we'll work for less food. And I thought, well, 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:53.400 if that's not a commentary on the abundance of food 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:55.360 in the world right now, as well as a commentary 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:58.720 and some other stuff I don't know what is um. 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:02.760 Then again, we're talking about this concept of gaming comfort, 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:06.600 and you guys out there are probably familiar with this 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:08.280 study because I think it got a lot of play. 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:13.520 But this idea that comfort also comes externally so and 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:16.800 actually affects our moods in ways that we might just 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:20.159 make favorable decisions about others and what I'm talking about 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:25.119 is um the warm mug of liquid study. Do you 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:28.000 know which when I'm talking about where the participants were 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:31.919 given a warm mug of coffee, I believe to hold 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:35.640 just for a few moments and to think about someone 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:40.600 that they may not have particularly had warm feelings about, 0:17:41.440 --> 0:17:45.000 but talk about them as they were holding the warm cup. 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:52.320 And then participants were given uh an iced coffee to hold. Okay, 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:55.160 so now they were holding something that's cold. And so 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:58.280 it turns out that those people who held the mugs 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:01.480 of hot Joe, we're much more likely to perceive others 0:18:01.560 --> 0:18:05.359 as having warmer personality traits. Well, this is basically this 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:09.600 is the hot coco phenomenon here because with hot cocoa, well, 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:11.359 first of all, are getting that chocolate that's sweet, so 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:14.560 you're you're turning on some various new transmitters there. Uh. 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:17.240 Some people like like their their hot chocolate little salty, 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:20.040 so you've got that going on, uh, giving you a 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:23.040 little little oxytocin. And then of course it is a 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:26.600 warm mug of goodness that you're having generally with friends 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:29.120 or family or loved ones while you're interacting with them. 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:32.280 So it tends to uh to color an even warmer 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:36.320 uh interpersonal relationship. Well, and you know it could be 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:39.000 anybody then this this study which is really interesting. They 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:40.760 could to be talking about co worker, they could be 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:43.359 talking about their neighbor, or they could be talking about 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:46.440 a family member. And this is one of those examples 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:51.320 that neuroscientists David Eagleman talks about um when he's questions 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:53.919 whether or not we actually have free will. And what 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:56.480 I mean is that if a warm mug of coffee 0:18:56.520 --> 0:19:00.000 subconsciously makes you feel better about the person you're talking 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:03.520 into while you're holding the coffee, um, then what sort 0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:08.360 of decisions might follow after that interaction or during that interaction. Well, 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:10.920 this this reminds me, actually reminds me of times where 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:15.280 we've dragged our recorder Matt in here, our editor, producer, 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:21.040 director general, a man of our times, and sometimes we 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:23.480 drag him in a ridiculous hours to try and get 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:26.520 an episode recorded. And sometimes you'll you'll give him coffee 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:28.800 and I thought you were just being nice, but you 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:31.800 were manipulating him by giving him this warm beverage so 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:33.760 that he can't help but think will warm thoughts then 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:36.040 about us and not hate us for dragging him in 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:42.119 it like five in the morning. Thanks for taking that down. No, really, 0:19:42.160 --> 0:19:44.720 it was. It's all coming from my heart, my warm, 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:47.000 warm heart. But still this is a good This is 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:49.040 a good trick that we should all exploit in our lives. 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:51.320 You're going in for a tough meeting, or you want 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:53.399 to just go for a job interview, you bring some 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:56.639 hot coffee, some hot coco something, some hot tea, anything 0:19:56.680 --> 0:20:01.040 that'll that'll get the room warm, and do not let 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:04.040 that job interview take place outside on a November day. Okay, 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:07.200 So if you doubt this idea that a warm beverage 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:10.920 or even just the warmth itself, it doesn't affect how 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:17.119