Bad day? Let me guess what's in your hand. Chips. Ice cream. Maybe a slice of pizza.
The list
Researchers at UCLA asked 1,760 American adults to name their top three comfort foods, then checked the nutrition of the 300 different foods they named. The top five: chips, ice cream, pizza, chocolate and cookies. Pasta made the top ten too.
What's inside
An average serving had about 223 calories, close to 40% of them from fat. Six in ten were low in fibre.
The big number: 72.7% were "hyperpalatable". That's science for food mixed so well, usually fat with salt or sugar, that your brain keeps asking for one more bite. And 42.7% were ultra-processed.
Every food in the top four, chips, ice cream, pizza and chocolate, was both. Pasta, the lone top-ten food that was neither, deserves a little medal.
Men's favourites had about 33 more calories per serving than women's. People over 55 picked lighter comfort foods than people aged 18 to 34.
Does it even work?
Here's the twist. In an earlier experiment by the same UCLA team, led by psychologist A. Janet Tomiyama, stressed people felt better whether they ate their favourite treat, some fruit and veg, or nothing at all. "People don't necessarily have to reach for that pint of ice cream in order to get comfort," she told Knowable Magazine.
Much of the comfort, she says, comes from memories we link with a food, "especially in your early years".
What it means for you
No one's banning ice cream. The survey asked what people like, not what they actually ate, and was done before the pandemic. But next time, a walk, a call to a friend or your gran's soup might work just as well.
The ice cream will still be in the freezer. It's patient like that.