A new study published in the August issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation tells why people tend to turn to fatty foods in order to boost their emotional state and reduce feelings of sadness.
Researchers say fatty foods, like chocolate, fries, etc., create a biological change in your body to reduce feelings of sadness.
They recruited 12 healthy and non-obese participants who were shown images of people with sad expressions while listening to one minute clips of sad classical music selections, while hooked up to fMRI scans to monitor brain activity. The participants were also hooked up to a feeding tube, with half fed the fatty acid found in Twinkies, and the other half fed a saline liquid.
During the test, participants were asked at four different times to rate their levels of hunger, fullness and mood. The results showed those who received the saline were twice as sad than the fatty acid group, but there was no difference in hunger of fullness.
The fMRI scans also confirmed the findings that participants who received the fatty acid solution showed dampened activity in the areas of the brain that are connected to emotions and feelings of sadness. I like this kind of study, eat fat, be happy! Maybe that is why bacon lovers are happier.