zeitgeist; The Taste of Comfort: Food for thought on how Americans eat to feel better - Statistical Data Included - Brief Article

American Demographics,  July, 2000  by Brian Wansink,  Cynthia Sangerman

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On a cold and rainy afternoon, you decide that a bowl of chicken soup would hit the spot. While eating, you smile as you recall a rainy day long ago when your mother made you the same kind of soup. Ever had a craving for a pint of double chocolate chip ice cream when you felt sad? A turkey sandwich when you felt happy? If so, then you're someone who has a comfort food, a specific food consumed under a specific situation to obtain psychological comfort.

At the Food and Brand Lab at the University of Illinois, we study people's relationships with comfort foods to answer three questions: 1) What are comfort foods? 2) When do people eat comfort foods? and 3) How do we become attached to comfort foods?

In one study, we randomly selected and did in-depth phone interviews with 411 people (63 percent female) from across the United States. We asked them what their favorite comfort foods were, as well as open-ended questions about how those items became comfort foods. With the results, we developed a quantitative 20-minute phone survey and enlisted participation among a stratified sample of 1,005 other individuals. A third study involved in-depth laddering interviews of snack-food fanatics.

Sweet and Sour Tastes

Potato chips top the list of Americans' favorite comfort foods, followed by ice cream, cookies, and candy. Our instinctive craving for salty foods and sweet foods is well documented. What is most interesting about this list is that nearly 40 percent of comfort foods do not fall into the traditional category of processed snack foods. Instead, they can be classified as relatively natural, homemade, or as even "healthy" - that is, meats, main dishes, soups, vegetables, and so on. Indeed, this is consistent with the notion that one of the factors pulling us to certain foods is not just hedonistic taste but the psychological comfort these foods provide and what they represent. In effect, the popularity of these less glamorous and less indulgent foods lends credibility to the notion that comfort foods are distinct from "taste good" foods.

Do preferred comfort foods differ by gender? You bet. In the survey of 1,005 consumers, we asked those polled to agree or disagree on whether particular foods were comfort foods to them. Males and females recorded striking differences in their responses. For females, the top three comfort foods are ice cream (74 percent), chocolate (69 percent), and cookies (66 percent). All are sweets, and all are basically snack foods. Males said their top three comfort foods are ice cream (77 percent), soup (73 percent), and pizza or pasta (72 percent). With the exception of ice cream, males generally claim they receive more comfort from hot foods and from main meals than do females. This may tell us something about the way to a man's heart.

An analysis by age shows that people aged 18 to 34 prefer ice cream (77 percent) and cookies (70 percent), while those aged 35 to 54 prefer soup (68 percent) and pasta (67 percent). People over the age of 55 prefer soup (76 percent) and mashed potatoes (74 percent). Soup is the comfort food people rate as the most healthy, and the one that the greatest percentage of people say makes them feel good about themselves.

Preferences Based on Mood Swings

Many people assume comfort foods are eaten when a person is in a funk, depressed, bored, or lonely. The opposite is true. People are more apt to seek out comfort foods when they're jubilant (86 percent) or when they want to celebrate or reward themselves (74 percent) than when they've got the blues (39 percent), the blahs (52 percent), or are feeling kind of lonely (39 percent).

The types of comfort foods that entice a person also vary depending on mood. People in happy moods tend to prefer healthier foods such as pizza or steak (32 percent). Sad people reach for ice cream and cookies 39 percent of the time, and 36 percent of bored people open up a bag of potato chips.

The Source of Our Cravings

Knowing how we form an association with comfort foods can move us a long way in helping consumers develop healthy habits that lead to a more nutritious lifestyle. To begin to understand the evolution of a comfort food, we analyzed 45-minute in-depth interviews, looking for patterns across foods and across personality types.

People list a number of reasons for the way foods become comfort foods. But two crop up most often: Past associations with the product and personality identification.

People cognitively connect past associations between foods and people in their lives ("My father loved green bean casserole") or specific events ("My mom always gave me soup when it was cold out or when I was not feeling well"). Some foods come to be associated with feelings one likes to recall or wants to recapture ("We always got ice cream after we won baseball games as a kid" or "I always associate Slurpees with carefree summers as a boy"). In some cases, these are vivid iconic instances one will flash on when thinking, tasting, or smelling the food. Yet in all instances, the general feelings evoked - safety, love, homecoming, appreciation, control, victory, empowerment - are underlying factors in the drive toward consumption.