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Max Rossi / Reuters
New study uncovers why fatty foods make you less sad.
A bowl of ice cream. A giant serving of mac 'n' cheese. A plate of chocolate chip cookies. We already know that fatty, comfort foods can help bust a bad mood -- but new research from Belgian researchers gives new insight into why.
Turns out, there may be more at play here than the visual, psychological effects of seeing the ice cream (or the pasta, or the cookies, or -- insert your go-to comfort food here). The study, led by Dr. Lukas Van Oudenhove of the University of Leuven and just published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, suggests that it's the fatty acid itself in those foods that works to decrease sad emotions.
Researchers recruited 12 healthy, non-obese volunteers, who were studied the morning after a 12-hour fast. Each individual underwent four 40-minute fMRI scans (that's functional magnetic resonance imaging -- or scans that measure brain activity). Here's where it gets kind of lab-rat-like: The participants were hooked up to a gastric feeding tube that administered 250 milliliters of either fatty acid or a saline solution. But three minutes before they were given the intragastric infusion, researchers played the volunteers 11 pieces of sad classical music, of 1-minute duration each. At the same time, 10 sad faces were projected onto a screen in front of the volunteers.
Without knowing they'd just been gotten a hit of fatty acid, right to the gut, those volunteers reported feeling 50 percent less sad than the ones who got the salt solution. The researchers also found that the infusion of the fat solution to the stomach lessened the behavioral and nerve cell responses to sad emotions. As Van Oudenhove explains, the novelty of this study is that the researchers believe it was the first to determine that fatty acid itself works to brighten a bad mood -- even without the visual cues that come from seeing a cheeseburger or a cupcake.
OK, but it's still a lot more fun to indulge in your favorite foods when you're sad. What's your favorite comfort food? Leave a comment telling us what it is and whether it cheers you up.
Follow msnbc.com health writer on Twitter: @melissadahl.
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Leave a Comment:
Bacon, of course!!
Studies have shown that fat is an essential item for a healthy nervous system. In short, the omegas 3, 6, and 9 are essential fats needed by our brain. Look up Lorenzo's oil to see what fat does for the Myelin sheet.
It's myelin sheath, you prententious twit.
Hmm difficult choice...I think I'm going to have to pick cake with a nice thick frosting:). Though a brownie fudge sundae is a close second.
It sounds like the fat itself was the magic bullet. This could explain why people who eat very natural diets that include whole milk, real butter, cheese, nuts, lean proteins, and other foods with good animal fats feel less depressed than those who eat processed oils and sugary foods, or even than those who eat low fat diets, once considered to be the healthy way to go.
So instead of focusing on the fact that "comfort foods" make us happy, we should focus on yet another benefit of the fat itself as part of a healthy daily diet.
You are absolutely right. The author completely misses the point by making the jump from fatty acids to cookies and cupcakes. Rather, what the study shows is that we need more fat in our diet from sources like real butter, grass-fed dairy and meats, coconut oil, olive oil, and red palm oil; not fat encased by loads of sugar and processed flour.
I hope that gastric feeding tube for the test subjects wasn't as painful to insert as the one I had to get for my chemo. Even morphine wasn't enough to kill the pain.
Something that tastes good makes a person happier? Who would have figured.
well, they didn't "taste" anything ... it went through a gastric tube. This proves it's the chemical composition rather than the taste.
A giant triple cheeseburger with the works on it!!
Whole bellied fried clams!
A taxpayer in some country paid for this............
yep... but we pay for a lot less glamorous things like ER visits for sore throats, airline travel for gov't officials who have to attend that networking picnic and new china for the white house.
HaganDas Ice Cream Bars: Well, that's the First Thought that came to Mind! Love & Kisses to All! I'm feeling that ice cream bar!
ALL OF THE ABOVE!!! ...and below, of course...
Lousy reporting. The study was looking at fatty acids and their effect on serotonin uptake (at least in part.) Fish oil is a known anti-depressent, for much of the same biological reasons. Sugar is a well-documented catalyst for serotonin cascade, and most people crave carbs and sugar, not "fatty acids."
So, despite how much the media wants people to believe that "ice cream" and "mac and cheese" are "fatty" foods, they are in reality high-sugar and/or starch foods with additional fats; NOT fatty foods. Coconut oil is a fatty food, and solid evidence suggests is relieves depression. Fish oil is a known anti-depressent, for much of the same biological reasons.
Get your facts straight... please.
Mac n cheese has butter, cheese, sour cream, and goodness knows what other foodstuffs made from dairy and animal fats. Thus it qualifies as a "fatty food" since it contains several different versions of edible fat in a vehicle of starches and sugar . Your examples are pure "fats", (i.e. a string of lipid hydrocarbons). Bacon, burgers, etc. are fatty proteins and as many people crave those as comfort foods just as much as ice cream and cake. What is the commonality between mac n cheese, cake, and bacon? High calorie content and edible fatty acids. Facts are straight, sir.
When I read the foods listed in the article I thought "carbs, carbs, carbs!" so this article should have been titled "super-high carbs/sugary foods with some fat in them". So I agree with Jon. I also think there is a healthy way to eat a burger but not a very healthy way to eat mac&cheese, cookies, or cakes unless in very small portions on rare occassions. But that's just my opinion... based on the research of many scientists.....
Wing Zings, from Wal-Mart going to get some today actually! :D
MMM Enchiladas with lots of sour cream sauce or pasta. I can give up sweets any day of the week, but carbs are my weakness!
With a large part of the US population fat and obese, go ahead and eat all the fat you want. You notice in the article it tested non fat people.
I may be weird, 'cause my favorite comfort food is sushi followed closely by oatmeal with craisins!!
I wonder if anyone made a distinction between saturated and insaturated fats.
I know all to well about this one. I need a donut!
Atrocious grammar, 'Without knowing they'd just been gotten a hit of fatty acid'.
It should read, 'Without knowing they'd just been 'GIVEN' a hit of fatty acid'.
Go here for a good review of this study:
precisionnutrition.com/research-your-brain-on-fat