對(duì)不起，安慰食物真的幫不了你

by Maanvi Singh

翻譯：芥子

Discovery Zone/探索區(qū)

對(duì)不起，安慰食物真的幫不了你

Eating Comfort Foods May Not Be So Comforting After All

by Maanvi Singh

翻譯：芥子

考試考砸了，又或是被老師批評(píng)了一頓……當(dāng)心情跌至谷底的時(shí)候，很多人都會(huì)化悲憤為食欲，吃個(gè)冰激凌或蛋糕，感覺似乎就好起來了，因?yàn)槲覀兿嘈攀澄锸墙鉀Q情緒的靈丹妙藥。但科學(xué)家們又出來多管閑事了。一項(xiàng)研究顯示，那些被人們稱為安慰食物（comfort food）的高卡路里食品，對(duì)撫慰我們的心靈其實(shí)沒什么作用……

安慰食物

顧名思義，安慰食物是那些人們認(rèn)為能對(duì)人的情緒產(chǎn)生安慰作用的食物。這些食物通常是很常見的食物，但對(duì)品嘗安慰食物的人而言，它們則往往具有勾起往日美好記憶的作用。這些食物大多含有較多碳水化合物，制作和準(zhǔn)備過程也相對(duì)簡(jiǎn)單。至于具體哪些元素能引起人們的懷舊情緒，則與不同的文化、成長(zhǎng)背景有關(guān)。

維基百科上面很仔細(xì)地列了幾個(gè)國家的安慰食物。由于品種實(shí)在太多，以下只列舉其中很少一部分，有興趣的同學(xué)可以自己到維基搜一搜。美國有番茄醬烘豆、蘋果派、玉米面包、土豆泥、清湯雞肉面條、花生醬；英國有奶油凍、炸魚薯?xiàng)l、各種布丁、烤肉、各種派；法國有洋蔥湯、肉醬/肉凍……結(jié)論：果然很高卡路里。你的安慰食物又是什么呢？

補(bǔ)腦詞匯

1) soothe [su?e] v. 撫慰，安慰

2) mac and cheese 奶酪通心粉

3) erase [I′reIz] v. 擦掉，抹掉

4) gloomy [′ɡlu?mI] a. 沮喪的，憂傷的

5) artery [′ɑ?terI] n. 動(dòng)脈

6) effect [I′fekt] n. 影響，效果

7) cure [kj??] n. 藥方

8) psychology [saI′k?l?d?I] n. 心理學(xué)

9) colleague [′k?li?ɡ] n. 同事，同僚

For many of us, chicken soup can1)soothe the soul and2)mac and cheese can3)erase a bad day. We eat chocolate when we feel4)gloomy. And we eat chocolate ice cream to help us get over a bad breakup.

These comfort foods usually aren’t so good for our5)arteries, but we tend to think they have healing6)effects—that they’re the7)cure for all our emotional problems.

But maybe they’re not, says Traci Mann, a professor of8)psychology at the University of Minnesota. In a recent study, Mann and some9)colleagues put 100 college students in a bad mood by making them watch clips from sad movies. They then fed half the students their favorite comfort food, while the other students ate food they enjoyed, but wouldn’t consider comfort food.

Once the students had finished eating, the researchers asked the students how they felt. It turns out that all the students felt better, regardless of what they had eaten.

對(duì)我們很多人來說，雞湯可以撫慰我們的心靈，奶酪通心粉可以趕走糟糕的一天。感到沮喪的時(shí)候我們會(huì)吃巧克力。我們會(huì)吃巧克力冰激凌來幫我們熬過痛苦的分手。

這些安慰食物通常對(duì)我們的動(dòng)脈不太有益，但我們傾向于認(rèn)為它們有治療效果——它們是所有情緒問題的靈丹妙藥。

但也許它們不是解藥——（美國）明尼蘇達(dá)大學(xué)心理學(xué)教授特拉奇·曼如是說。在最近的一項(xiàng)研究中，曼和同事讓100名大學(xué)生觀看悲傷電影的片段，令他們的情緒變?cè)恪Ｈ缓螅麄冏屢话雽W(xué)生吃他們最喜歡的安慰食物，其他學(xué)生則吃他們喜歡、但不被他們認(rèn)為是安慰食物的食物。

學(xué)生們一吃完，研究人員就問他們有什么感覺。結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)，無論吃的是什么，所有學(xué)生的感覺都變好。

“That is not what we expected,” Mann says. “We keptrepeating the study, because we didn’t believe it.”

In another experiment, Mann had half the kids eat comfort food, and the other half eat nothing. After a few minutes, both groups felt equally better. The comfort food had no effect on their mood.

The results of these experiments appeared in Health Psychology. “People are taking this very hard,” Mann says. “I guess it removes a very10)handy11)justifcation people have for eating comfort food.”

Of course, the study has a few12)signifcant13)limitations. For one, it only looked at a particular kind of14)negative mood— caused by watching sad films. Other studies have come to different15)conclusions. For example, one in 2011, published in the journal Psychological Science, suggested that eating chicken soup may help some people feel less lonely.

“那不是我們預(yù)想的結(jié)果，”曼說。“我們不斷重復(fù)這個(gè)研究，因?yàn)槲覀儾幌嘈沤Y(jié)果。”

在另一個(gè)實(shí)驗(yàn)中，曼讓一半孩子吃安慰食物，另一半則什么也不吃。幾分鐘以后，兩組人的感覺都好多了——安慰食物對(duì)他們的心情沒有影響。

這些實(shí)驗(yàn)結(jié)果刊登在《健康心理學(xué)》上。“人們很難接受這個(gè)結(jié)果，”曼說。“我想，這個(gè)結(jié)果剝奪了人們吃安慰食物的一個(gè)很管用的理由。”

當(dāng)然，該調(diào)查存在一些明顯的限制。其中之一，就是它只觀察了由看悲傷電影引起的這一特定負(fù)面情緒。其他研究則得出了不一樣的結(jié)果。例如，2011年一份發(fā)表在《心理科學(xué)》的研究指出，喝雞湯可能令一些人感到?jīng)]那么孤獨(dú)。

注：Ben&Jerry's是美國著名冰激淋品牌。

And the researchers didn’t look at the reallife situations in which people eat comfort foods. “Maybe the comfort from comfort food comes from going to a cafe16)acquiring it,” Mann says. The research on the psychological effects of comfort food is not very17)thorough, she notes, so we don’t have any definite answers yet.

David Levitsky, a professor of18)nutrition at Cornell University, says Mann’s research is19)in line with what he would have expected. “We tend to look for a magic solution to our problems,” Levitsky says.

The idea that we can feel better by simply eating certain foods is very20)appealing, he says, “but in21)actuality, feeling better has nothing to do with the food itself, and it’s a very weak psychological effect.”

另外，研究人員也沒有觀察現(xiàn)實(shí)生活中人們吃安慰食物的情形。“也許安慰食物的療效來自去咖啡廳獲取它（的過程），”曼說。她指出，這個(gè)關(guān)于安慰食物所能帶來的心理療效的研究不夠徹底，因此我們還沒有絕對(duì)的答案。

（美國）康奈爾大學(xué)營(yíng)養(yǎng)學(xué)教授大衛(wèi)·李維斯基說，曼的研究與他的預(yù)期相符。“我們總希望給自己的問題尋找一個(gè)神奇的解決方法，”李維斯基說。

他說，只需吃上某些食物就能讓我們感覺變好，這個(gè)想法是非常有吸引力的。“但事實(shí)上，感覺變好和食物本身沒有關(guān)系，其心理影響也是微乎其微的。”

The comfort foods we turn to the most are the ones we ate while growing up, or the ones that remind us of22)celebrations, Levitsky says. We may23)associate chicken soup with all those times Mom took care of us when we were little, and maybe mashed potatoes remind us of joyful Thanksgivings.Remember that scene from the movie Ratatouille, when an angry food24)critic tastes a meal that makes him feel like a kid again?

李維斯基說，我們求助的安慰食物大多是我們?cè)诔砷L(zhǎng)過程中經(jīng)常吃的，或者是讓我們想起歡慶時(shí)刻的那些。我們也許會(huì)把雞湯聯(lián)系到小時(shí)候媽媽照顧我們的那些日子，土豆泥則可能讓我們想起那些快樂的感恩節(jié)。還記得電影《料理鼠王》中，一位憤怒的食評(píng)家品嘗了讓他感覺回到童年的一頓飯的那一幕嗎？

補(bǔ)腦詞匯

10) handy [′h?ndI] a. 方便的

11) justifcation [d??stIfI′keI∫?n] n. 理由12) signifcant [sIɡ′nIf?k?nt] n. 大的，重要的

13) limitation [lImI′teI∫?n] n. 限制

14) negative [′neɡ?tIv] a. 消極的，負(fù)面的15) conclusion [k?n′klu???n] n. 結(jié)論

16) acquire [?′kwaI?] v. 獲得

17) thorough [′θ?r?] a. 徹底的，完全的

18) nutrition [nju?′trI∫?n] n. 營(yíng)養(yǎng)學(xué)

19) in line with 符合

20) appealing [?′pi?lI?] a. 吸引人的

21) actuality [?ktj?′?lItI] n. 事實(shí)，現(xiàn)狀22) celebration [selI′breI∫?n] n. 慶祝

23) associate [?′s??∫IeIt] v. 聯(lián)想

24) critic [′krItIk] n. 評(píng)論家

25) necessarily [′nes?s?rIlI] ad. 必要地26) cope with 應(yīng)付

27) opposed [?′p?uzd] a. 反對(duì)的

28) glum [ɡl?m] a. 悶悶不樂的

《料理鼠王》

《料理鼠王》（又譯《美食總動(dòng)員》）是2007年由皮克斯動(dòng)畫制作室制作的動(dòng)畫電影。它的英文片名“Ratatouille”來自一款同名的法國菜式——普羅旺斯雜燴。故事講述一只原本注定在垃圾堆度過平淡一生的小老鼠小米，夢(mèng)想成為站在世界之巔的美味大廚。一次偶然機(jī)會(huì)，小米來到廚神的餐廳，認(rèn)識(shí)了資質(zhì)平平但態(tài)度認(rèn)真的學(xué)徒林奎尼，小米更幫助他做出一道又一道的精美大餐。最后小米烹制出全巴黎最棒的普羅旺斯雜燴，成就了一個(gè)廚房神話。

We think that eating foods that remind us of home, or of good times, will make us feel better when we’re down, Levitsky says. “But we don’t know if it’s performing the function that people want it to.”

So does this mean we should step away from the Ben & Jerry’s注when we’re feeling sad? Not25)necessarily, Levitsky says. “There’s no harm to it,” he says, unless you’re overeating, or always eating food to avoid26)coping with big problems.

Mann agrees. “I am not27)opposed to comfort foodeating during your occasional28)glum moment,” she says.

Maybe the food doesn’t help anything, she says, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t delicious. “So you lose one justifcation for eating a cookie. Come up with another one.”

李維斯基說，我們認(rèn)為，在情緒低落的時(shí)候吃那些讓我們想起家或美好時(shí)刻的食物會(huì)讓我們感覺變好。“但我們不知道這是否能如人們所愿，發(fā)揮作用。”

那么，這是否意味著在傷心的時(shí)候，我們應(yīng)該遠(yuǎn)離Ben and Jerry’s冰激凌呢？倒不一定，李維斯基說。“吃了也沒有害處，”他說——除非你吃太多，或者在處理重要的時(shí)候總是用吃來逃避。

曼表示同意。“在偶爾感到悶悶不樂的時(shí)候，我不反對(duì)吃一些安慰食物，”她說。

她說，也許食物不一定管用，但不代表它不好吃。“于是，你失去了一個(gè)吃曲奇餅的合理理由，馬上又找到了另一個(gè)。”