(FAMEMA - 2021) The idea of comfort food sounds great in theory, but many of societys favourite feel-good foods lack ideal nutrients. This leaves eaters feeling cranky, not comforted. Some of the main dietary contributors to low or bad mood are too much sugar and too many starchy and refined carbohydrates, British nutritional therapist Claudia Smith told Huffington Post. If you eat too much of these foods, you can end up with blood sugar spikes and crashes, which can lead to symptoms such as low mood, irritability, brain fog, anxiety, fatigue and difficulty concentrating. Common comfort foods such as cookies or french fries activate reward triggers in our brains, Smith said. They give us something to look forward to or get excited about. Psychologist and well-being consultant Lee Chambers told Huffington Post that comfort foods do provide a hit of pleasureinducing dopamine, but that pleasure is fleeting. Emotional eating is a cyclical process where low mood leads to eating foods likely to spike your blood sugar, giving us a dose of dopamine, but then it drops at the same time as we start to feel guilty, Chambers told Huffington Post. This combination often makes us feel a lack of satisfaction, with feelings of guilt, shame and regret. Even worse? Comfort foods often lead to overeating. Over time, high consumption of highly palatable foods may actually lead to a reduced sensitivity of this brain reward response, Smith said. You may find yourself needing to eat more and more to experience the same effect. (Stephanie Vermillion. www.huffingtonpost.co.uk, 30.05.2020. Adaptado.) No trecho do terceiro pargrafo This combination often makes us feel a lack of satisfaction, o termo sublinhado pode ser substitudo, sem alterao de sentido, por
