Make Your Comfort Foods Healthy and Delicious this Winter
A bad day at work, a stressful argument, blizzard weather outside or a bad traffic jam, it’s no surprise that you look for your favourite food after being encountered by any of these situations.
Your favourite food or COMFORT FOOD is something that we all find relief in or we feel pleasure after eating. No matter if it’s a bowl of cheesy macaroni, your favourite cooking straight out from the oven or a roadside samosa adventure, many of us depend upon these edible comforters to make us feel better.
Comfort Foods- A Delightful Escape
Food not only fuels our body but also fuels our soul. Yes, it fuels our soul with good memories. It’s not only you, these foods can make you feel better because they act as emotional anchors reminding us of the good times.
Let’s study some science behind comfort foods!
Giving rise to a sense of belonging, these foods are known to be responsible for uplifting our mood. And that’s because of the olfactory bulb, the structure responsible for smell recognition. A particular odour travels to the parts of our brain that keep record memory (hippocampus and amygdala) and that’s how our brain associates our favourite food odours with memory.
Exposure to those olfactory signals again even after a long time, can trigger the forgotten events and recall those old good times.
Food culture varies from place to place; similarly, comfort foods also vary regionally. For me, home-cooked Biryani by my mother serves the purpose. All I need after a hectic day is a tempting rice bowl with a pleasant aroma and perfect balance of spices or sometimes too much spice (no wonder, a typical South Asian can surely relate to this).
What Adds to the Comfort of Comfort Foods?
Food consoles us, food reassures us, and even food pampers us!
These edible comforters exist everywhere. It’s not just how we think these foods give rise to a temporary sense of wellbeing. No matter which way you slice it, there is one thing common in all of these foods. Don’t think too much, it’s calories.
Yes, yes you heard me right, most comfort foods are high in calories and that’s possibly one fine reason that we can’t resist these foods. Sugar, salt and fats are the most commonly found compounds in these comfort foods and that does all the magic (to your brain).
Do you know not all the sweet foods are bad instead some of these are quite beneficial for us! Honey is one such food and we know about countless benefits of honey for our overall health.
These food ingredients are responsible for the temporary sense of relief that comes along with their consumption. Comfort foods are known to trigger our brain reward system, leading to emotional elevation. Once triggered our brain stores this information and keeps this on record and repeat. You will be surprised knowing that these foods similarly affect our brain as drugs.
Health and Comfort Foods
Unfortunately, there is a downside to these comfort foods. Your cheesy, buttery oily comfort foods (at least most of these) can be unhealthy and the reason is the presence of calorie-dense ingredients in their composition. Your health is not to be compromised for the sake of this temporary comfort.
Here you need to be mindful of the fact that no particular ingredient is harmful or unhealthy. No matter if you claim it to be super foods known for their countless health benefits or magic foods, the way you use it accounts for it being healthy or unhealthy.
How to Make Comfort Foods Healthy?
Then what are you supposed to do? Stop eating it? Of course, not!
You can make your comfort foods healthy by creating healthier versions and not compromising your comfort. Don’t think too much, here are the tips to follow that can make your comfort foods healthy.
- Replace the refined/simple carbs sources with complex crab alternatives. Your pasta, wrap or noodles can be made healthier by this. How about replacing your ordinary pizza dough with cauliflower dough? Or a doughnut with whole wheat pillow dough?
- Replace mayonnaise with plain yogurt and make sure it’s lower in fat as well. It only only tastes different but cuts down the calories of your meals.
- Use oats for frying wings or meatballs instead of breadcrumbs.
- Ditch cream while preparing pasta and replace it with skim milk. You will have the same creamy taste but with fewer calories.
- Choose the low-fat alternatives of the dairy product. Be it cheese, yogurt or milk you can easily find these replacements in the market.
- Air frying your French fries or potato fritters can be a good alternative to deep frying in oil.
Bottom Line!
Taste and health go side by side and none among both should be compromised while achieving one. Comfort foods play a key role in our everyday lives and they tend to make us feel good or overwhelmed. Most of the comfort foods we eat are unhealthy and eventually take a toll on our health.
Healthier alternatives of these comfort foods are the only way we can ensure check on our physical and mental well-being simultaneously. So begin today with these tips and pave your path to healthy living while satisfying your taste buds!
