For lots of people who feel down, the cookie jar is a best friend. Eating something sweet and delicious kicks off certain very compelling reward centers in the brain.
So what about when you're happy? We tend to think of emotional eating as something done only by those who need a lift. But research indicates that even people who say they are happy are likely to throw back a couple of chocolate bars if they think the sweets will help them stay upbeat.
In a study of university students (whose extracurricular endeavors might win them a 4.0 GPA for cookie knowledge if such things were graded) about twice as many of them ate cookies, pretzels and cheese when they thought the food would affect their mood. Some thought the snack would make them feel happier. Others thought it would simply keep them feeling good.
Before the study, explained one of the researchers, "most people thought that if you're in a bad mood, you just give up on your diet and give in to the food." But the bad news is it doesn't matter what mood you're in. We use food to feed our mood, period. It's still a case of using food in an attempt to regulate mood. Even happy people use food to determine their emotions.
