London - For those who are prone to comfort eating, here’s news that will give, well, some comfort.
Snacking when stressed may not be such a bad habit as it is often balanced out by eating less at happy times, a study found.
Researchers also said those who do not comfort eat tend to pig out when they feel good.
They classed people as either “munchers”, who comfort eat, or “skippers”, who do not.
Gudrun Sproesser, a psychologist at the University of Konstanz in Germany, said: “Both skippers and munchers have their ‘soft spot’ for food, they just show different compensatory eating patterns in response to positive and negative situations.”
Her team asked volunteers if they were comfort eaters.
They were then given a stress test in which they made a video of themselves, supposedly to be judged by strangers.
One group was told their videos had been rejected, making them feel stressed. Another group was told they had been accepted, making them happy.
A control group was told the experiment had been cancelled, so they had neutral feelings.
All groups then took part in an ice-cream tasting – with researchers monitoring what they ate.
Among those who had been rejected, comfort eating “munchers” ate more than the neutral group, while “skippers” ate less.
On average, “munchers” ate 120 calories more than “skippers”.
Of those who were accepted, however, the “munchers” ate less than the neutral group, while the “skippers” had more.
This time, “skippers” ate 72 calories more than “munchers”.
Dr Sproesser said: “Our results suggest the need for a dynamic view of food intake across multiple situations.”
She said it could even help to comfort eat, since going hungry might cause more stress – and make people eat more later. - Daily Mail