It's 4 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon and cravings are running rampant at your house. So why does your hubby have a hankering for a steak when all you want is a Snickers? Researchers at the University of Illinois just might have an explanation for your disparate cravings.
The psychological underpinnings of food preferences have been a continuing topic of study at the Food and Brand Lab at UL Urbana-Champaign.
Researchers there found when it comes to foods eaten in the hope of gaining psychological comfort, men like hearty meals, while women look for snacks that require little or no preparation.
What's on the Menu?
While the tendency for us to experience cravings for salty and sweet foods has been documented previously, the lab found that nearly 40 percent of "comfort-giving foods" do not fall into the traditional categories of snacks or desserts. Instead, they can be classified as relatively natural, home-made foods and main course items like pizza, pasta, and steak.
Craving Comfort
This research reinforces the idea that it's not the hunger for the particular food itself, but the feeling it provides that brings on a craving.
Brian Wansink, a marketing professor who heads the lab, explains: "Comfort foods are foods whose consumption evoke a psychologically pleasurable state ...".
Drawing from national survey questionnaires, the lab has concluded that a person's comfort-food preferences are formed at an early age and are triggered, in addition to hunger, by conditioned associations.
