“Vitamin P”: Why is it important to feel pleasure from what we eat

Enjoying food has health benefits. Enjoying food helps with digestion and can help improve your relationship with food, including overcoming eating disorders.

For several years, researchers have been studying the science of eating for pleasure and have found that physiologically, the pleasure people get from eating occurs in both the mouth and the brain, and is associated with the release of feel-good hormones. Health line.

“Any kind of pleasure, including pleasure from food, causes the release of dopamine in the brain,” explains the group’s therapist, nutritionist, and certified provider. Trust in the bodyfrom the nutrition and health organization Wise heart, nutrition and health, Storch’s fin“Dopamine is often called the ‘feel-good hormone’ because it activates reward pathways in the brain, which promotes happiness, calm, motivation, and focus,” explains Storch.

While some older research, published in 2011, suggests that obese people may have low dopamine sensitivity (causing them to overeat to get adequate pleasure from food), when this connection works properly, physical benefits can be achieved. “When we relax in response to a pleasurable meal, our nervous system goes into rest and digestion mode, allowing us to break down and fully utilize the nutrients in the food we eat,” says the nutritionist, when Health line.

A 2020 systematic review analyzed 119 studies on the relationship between food enjoyment and healthy eating. Of these, 57% showed a favorable relationship between food enjoyment and positive eating outcomes.

For example, a 2015 study linked greater enjoyment of food with higher nutritional status. Other studies highlight the importance of enjoying healthy foods to maintain a nutritious and balanced diet.

Sarah Gold Anzlovar, a registered dietitian and certified intuitive eating consultant with the same organization, pointed out that “there’s a belief that ‘healthy’ foods have to be bland or tasteless,” but that “when we eat foods we enjoy, satisfaction increases, which can actually improve diet quality and reduce the likelihood of binge or overeating episodes,” he added.

Other benefits of comfort food include developing closer social bonds (such as at family gatherings), physical and emotional comfort (such as the feeling of eating hot soup when we’re sick), and even connecting with our cultural heritage by eating traditional or nostalgic foods, Anzlovar says.