冰淇淋、土豆泥 轻松还你好心情

Eating Can Boost Mood, UK Researchers Find (2002)

Feeling tired and stressed out? A new study provides evidence that a bowl of ice cream or mashed potatoes can lift your spirits.

Researchers from the University of Surrey in the UK investigated the effects of eating on mood in 40 women who were either non-emotional or emotional eaters. Emotional eaters tend to eat in response to negative feelings rather than hunger. All women recorded their moods over one day and described how they felt after eating.

Eating was found to lift the spirits of all the women, according to the study, which was presented last month at a meeting of the British Psychological Society in Blackpool, UK. Although emotional eaters reported feeling more hurried, irritated, tired, tense, angry and fearful than non-emotional eaters, there was no difference in the overall effect of food on a person's mood once they had eaten, to the surprise of the study authors.

"We were expecting eating to have a greater effect on mood in the emotional eaters, (which would explain) a means by which people become emotional eaters," Dr. Katherine Appleton said.

你是否感到疲惫不堪和压力重重呢？最近一项新的研究发现在这种时候吃一杯冰淇淋或者一份土豆泥可以让你情绪高昂。

英国萨瑞大学的研究人员对40名女性进行了调查，研究了她们的饮食对情绪的影响。这些女性既非"非情绪化饮食者"也不是"情绪化饮食者"。所谓"情绪化"饮食者指的是这样一种人，他们进食的原因是因为情绪低落而不是因为饥饿。这些接受调查的女性记录了她们在一天之内的情绪变化情况，并对自己进食后的感觉进行了描述。

上个月英国心理学学会在英国布莱克浦举行了一次会议，会议上萨瑞大学的研究人员公布了这项研究的结果：所有接受调查的女性都可以通过进食提高情绪。令研究者没有想到的是，尽管同"非情绪化进食者"相比，"情绪化进食者"记录中所记载的各种情绪，例如仓促、急躁、疲劳、紧张、愤怒和恐惧等等在程度上会比前者更甚，但是从整体上看，饮食对这两种进食者在情绪上的影响大致是相同的。

研究者之一，凯瑟琳·阿普尔顿博士说："我们本来以为饮食对于情绪化进食者的影响会更大一些，可事实上大多人都会通过进食成为情绪化进食者的。"