Chronic Pain and Comfort Eating
More than two in three people who live with chronic pain reach for comfort food when they experience flare-ups, researchers have found.
A survey of 141 adults with chronic pain aimed to explore the reasons behind this behavior. The results show that the main reasons for comfort eating are:
- to have a pleasant experience (51.8%)
- distraction (49.6%)
- to reduce emotions (39%)
Comfort eating wasn’t just for the purpose of distraction or numbing negative feelings, although those were important too. For many, eating comfort foods provided a nice experience in their day and something to look forward to.
According to co-author Dr Amy Burton, a lecturer in clinical psychology at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), this finding was somewhat unexpected.
Author's summary: People with chronic pain often eat comfort food for pleasure.
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