對(duì)不起，安慰食物真的幫不了你

考試考砸了，又或是被老師批評(píng)了一頓……當(dāng)心情跌至谷底的時(shí)候，很多人都會(huì)化悲憤為食欲，吃個(gè)冰激凌或蛋糕，感覺似乎就好起來了，因?yàn)槲覀兿嘈攀澄锸墙鉀Q情緒的靈丹妙藥。但科學(xué)家們又出來多管閑事了。一項(xiàng)研究顯示，那些被人們稱為安慰食物（comfort food）的高卡路里食品，對(duì)撫慰我們的心靈其實(shí)沒什么作用……

安慰食物

顧名思義，安慰食物是那些人們認(rèn)為能對(duì)人的情緒產(chǎn)生安慰作用的食物。這些食物通常是很常見的食物，但對(duì)品嘗安慰食物的人而言，它們則往往具有勾起往日美好記憶的作用。這些食物大多含有較多碳水化合物，制作和準(zhǔn)備過程也相對(duì)簡(jiǎn)單。至于具體哪些元素能引起人們的懷舊情緒，則與不同的文化、成長(zhǎng)背景有關(guān)。

維基百科上面很仔細(xì)地列了幾個(gè)國(guó)家的安慰食物。由于品種實(shí)在太多，以下只列舉其中很少一部分，有興趣的同學(xué)可以自己到維基搜一搜。美國(guó)有番茄醬烘豆、蘋果派、玉米面包、土豆泥、清湯雞肉面條、花生醬；英國(guó)有奶油凍、炸魚薯?xiàng)l、各種布丁、烤肉、各種派；法國(guó)有洋蔥湯、肉醬/肉凍……結(jié)論：果然很高卡路里。你的安慰食物又是什么呢？

For many of us， chicken soup can 1）soothe the soul and 2）mac and cheese can 3）erase a bad day. We eat chocolate when we feel 4）gloomy. And we eat chocolate ice cream to help us get over a bad breakup.

These comfort foods usually aren’t so good for our 5）arteries， but we tend to think they have healing 6）effects—that they’re the 7）cure for all our emotional problems.

But maybe they’re not， says Traci Mann， a professor of 8）psychology at the University of Minnesota. In a recent study， Mann and some 9）colleagues put 100 college students in a bad mood by making them watch clips from sad movies. They then fed half the students their favorite comfort food， while the other students ate food they enjoyed， but wouldn’t consider comfort food.

Once the students had finished eating， the researchers asked the students how they felt. It turns out that all the students felt better， regardless of what they had eaten.

“That is not what we expected，” Mann says. “We kept repeating the study， because we didn’t believe it.”

In another experiment， Mann had half the kids eat comfort food， and the other half eat nothing. After a few minutes， both groups felt equally better. The comfort food had no effect on their mood.

The results of these experiments appeared in Health Psychology. “People are taking this very hard，” Mann says. “I guess it removes a very 10）handy 11）justification people have for eating comfort food.”

Of course， the study has a few 12）significant 13）limitations. For one， it only looked at a particular kind of 14）negative mood—caused by watching sad films. Other studies have come to different 15）conclusions. For

example， one in 2011， published in the journal Psychological Science， suggested that eating chicken soup may help some people feel less lonely.

And the researchers didn’t look at the reallife situations in which people eat comfort foods. “Maybe the comfort from comfort food comes from going to a cafe 16）acquiring it，” Mann says. The

research on the psychological effects of comfort food is not very 17）thorough， she notes， so we don’t have any definite answers yet.

David Levitsky， a professor of 18）nutrition at Cornell University， says Mann’s research is 19）in line with what he would have expected. “We tend to look for a magic solution to our problems，” Levitsky says.

The idea that we can feel better by simply eating certain foods is very 20）appealing， he says， “but in 21）actuality， feeling better has nothing to do with the food itself， and it’s a very weak psychological effect.”

The comfort foods we turn to the most are the ones we ate while growing up， or the ones that remind us of 22）celebrations， Levitsky says. We may 23）associate chicken soup with all those times Mom took care of us when we were little， and maybe mashed potatoes remind us of joyful Thanksgivings.

對(duì)我們很多人來說，雞湯可以撫慰我們的心靈，奶酪通心粉可以趕走糟糕的一天。感到沮喪的時(shí)候我們會(huì)吃巧克力。我們會(huì)吃巧克力冰激凌來幫我們熬過痛苦的分手。

這些安慰食物通常對(duì)我們的動(dòng)脈不太有益，但我們傾向于認(rèn)為它們有治療效果--它們是所有情緒問題的靈丹妙藥。