Finding Comfort In Food: From Memories To Emotion, What Makes A Great Comfort Food?

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Don't we all need a little bit of comfort in our lives right now?

Saturday, December 5th is "National Comfort Food Day" and with the pandemic and everything else going on, if someone could come up with the ultimate comfort food they could probably retire to an island paradise.

But Nutritionist Leslie Bonci from Active Eating Advice says comfort food has a personalized purpose.

"People choose comfort food, when they're unhappy, or when they're bored or when they're angry, or even sometimes when they're absolutely thrilled and want to celebrate because you don't usually select celebrate with the salad," said Bonci. "No, that's not happening it's something indulgent is really what we want to do to kind of bring the joy to that occasion that we're already feeling happy about or to help to placate ourselves when we're feeling sad."

Bonci says the roots of someone's comfort food are formed early.

"For a lot of people comfort food connotes tradition, something we grew up with, so it might be grandma's pasta Fagioli or you might be a gnocchi or it might be a rib roast or it might be a noodle kugel or whatever it is, it's that tradition in the kitchen and right there that puts a smile on our face because of all of the memories that come back in," she explained.

The important thing about comfort food is how it makes you feel.

"That could be the taste of the food is something that warms you up on a cold day, when we tend to go to a hot cocoa or a bowl of soup because it feels comforting inside when we're having a bad day, we looked at our comfort food to physically make us feel better," she said.

Bonci says there are no rules.

"They're a great thing because eating should be comfortable," she said. "A lot of us have things that make us uncomfortable every day whether it's the state of the world or, you know, something going on in our homes or whatever it is. So, we look to food to provide the best comfort. So if your food is not provided comfort for you. You matter, you better change what's on your plate."

If you have more than one comfort food that's okay because comfort can come in many forms.

Or as Bonci puts it, "That depends upon how we feel it depends upon the circumstances where we are, but I think what's critically important is for people to realize if you don't want to let that comfort food become uncomfortable. Oh, I feel guilty because I ate it. Or, I ate the entire gallon of ice cream and now physically I'm feeling miserable. So you've got to make that comfort food, work for you."

There is no way to generalize what comfort might be. Bonci says men lean towards savory while women lean towards sweets, but again, there are no rules.

In an informal poll of "comfort food go-to foods" here at KDKA, some of the answers were: stuffed cabbage, pasta carbonara, spicy wings, beef ramen, sweet potato with butter, lasagna, toast, cereal, chips & salsa, homemade burger and fries, and homemade chocolate chip cookies.

The top two comfort foods were a variety of pizzas, and getting the most votes, macaroni and cheese.

Enjoy!