Let’s Talk About Comfort Food

+ a recipe for Chicken Soup with Leeks and Barley

My social media feed was flooded with posts about what folks were cooking and eating to soothe their nerves last week, and the holiday season ahead is comfort food prime time, with edible happiness everywhere you look to brighten the darkest days of the year. While it’s more than OK to reach for food as a pleasure and balm in stressful or sad times, just like any support system, if we lean on it too heavily, it can throw us out of balance. Here are some ways to keep comfort food a positive, and helpful, part of your life.

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Remove the Guilt

Many people call comfort food a “guilty pleasure,” but I suggest we take the word guilty out of the equation entirely and allow comfort food to simply be a pleasure. Food, in general, is supposed to soothe us and fill us with contentment. The experience of it —its aroma, flavor, presentation —is supposed to conjure memories of joyful times and lift our spirits.  Any guilt we might pin on our favorite comfort foods only squelches their valuable feel-good effect. Plus, guilt can lead to a dangerous spiral where we feel bad about what were are eating, driving us to neutralize those feelings with more comfort food, which makes us feel worse, and so on.

Find Multiple Sources of Comfort

Yes, food is an important source of comfort, but don’t make it your only one. It’s key to have a variety of tools in your “things that make me happy” toolbox, so it is not always about eating. For me, getting into nature helps. Last week I shut off the news, stepped away from my phone, and walked around Central Park on a hunt for the eight Great Trees of New York City that are in that park. Seeing majestic 150-year-old elms and pines, which will likely be standing well after I am gone, instantly calms me and give me perspective.

Music can also be a tremendous source of joy and centering, and there is something to be said for cozying up to a feel-good old movie or TV series. (Hello, Dirty Dancing and The Sound of Music.) Getting outside for a walk, meditating or doing deep breathing exercises, taking a nice long bath, and calling a friend to chat or get together, are all helpful ways to soothe and rebalance.

Savor Mindfully