Whether it’s chicken and dumplings, lasagna, or chocolate chip cookies, we all have foods that we turn to when we need a little extra support. Maybe we saddle up with a bowl of our favorite soup when we’re feeling under the weather or munch on a yummy childhood snack in front of the computer when we have to work late.
Comfort foods provide just that: comfort and every human society has had its go-to favorites.
We can’t know for sure how long comfort foods have been around, but for much of human history, we’ve been relying on them. However, it’s less likely that hunter-gatherers turned to comfort foods because food availability was more in question, says Charles Spence, an experimental psychologist who has studied the science of comfort foods at the University of Oxford.
