The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between comfort food preferences of college faculty when under normal (non-stressful) and stressful conditions. Thirty-four percent (n=63) of the participants were males and 66 percent (n=121) were females. Sixty-seven percent (n=123) experienced a change in appetite when stressed, with 69 percent (n=85) experiencing an increase and 31 percent (n=38) experiencing a decrease in appetite. Participants chose a significantly wider variety of foods when under stressful conditions for both sweet (p=<.001) and salty/crunchy food categories (p=.004). High restrained eaters chose significantly more types of sweet foods (p=.031) and beverages (p=.020) than low restrained eaters when comparing stressful and normal conditions. These findings suggest the majority of adults may experience changes in appetite with stress, specifically an increased appetite, and may choose more types of sweet and salty/crunchy foods. An individual's restraint level, gender, and age may also play a role in comfort food choice. / Department of Family and Consumer Sciences

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Master of Science / Department of Human Nutrition / Tandalayo Kidd / Weiqun Wang / The number of overweight and obese college students in the United States has remained high, which could be related to the comfort food and beverages consumed. Sugar-sweetened beverages and fried potatoes are beverages and comfort food commonly consumed by college students. Furthermore, people’s behavior is affected by their perceptions and goals. Thus, this study aimed to assess the correlations between the perception, goal of body weight, and sugar-sweetened beverages and fried potatoes consumption behaviours of college students. A cross-sectional survey of 371 college students was conducted via a self-reporting questionnaire that included information related to sugar-sweetened beverages and fried potato consumption behavior in the past month. The involved students also described their body weight perception and future goal. Spearman correlation and Chi-square analyses were performed to examine the associations. There were significant associations (p<0.0001) between perception of body weight and goal of body weight, regular soda consumption and other sweetened beverage consumption, regular soda consumption and fried potato consumption, and other sweetened beverage consumption and fried potatoes consumption. In addition, there were significant correlations between goals of body weight and other sweetened beverage consumption (p=0.0370). These findings confirmed that perception of body weight was associated with goal of body weight and provided a significant importance for educational intervention to students on improving awareness of healthy body weight and eating.

Orientador: Prof. Dr. Paula Ayako Tiba / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do ABC, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Neurociência e Cognição, 2015. / A privação do sono REM ou privação do sono paradoxal (PSD), em ratos, induz prejuízos cognitivos. Estudos anteriores mostraram que a exposição ao estresse também é capaz de produzir prejuízo, o que pode indicar que o estresse e seus mediadores hormonais poderiam ser responsáveis pelo déficit cognitivo. Anteriormente, foi demonstrado que o fornecimento de soluções palatáveis durante a privação de sono é capaz de reduzir a liberação de ACTH e corticosterona (CORT), hormônios envolvidos na resposta ao stress e, provavelmente, envolvidos no prejuízo cognitivo. No presente estudo, 130 ratos foram divididos em três experimentos: teste de memória, teste hormonal e de palatabilidade. No teste de memória e hormonal, 60 ratos foram divididos em dois grupos: Controle (CTL) e PSD. Foram oferecidas água, sacarose (SAC) (13,5%) ou sucralose (SUC) (6%) para ingestão durante o período de PSD (96h). Ao final da privação de sono, os as concentrações de CORT foram medidas e os animais foram treinados e testados na tarefa de condicionamento do medo ao contexto. Durante o período de PSD, os animais foram pesados diariamente e a ingestão de alimentos e de fluidos foram avaliadas duas vezes por dia. Para o teste de palatabilidade, os animais foram divididos em dois grupos de 5 ratos cada e foi ofertada SUC e água ou solução de SUC e SAC. O consumo total das soluções foi medido durante 4 dias. Em comparação com os seus homólogos CTL, o grupo PSD perdeu peso durante a privação e roeram mais ração do que CTL durante a terceira e quarta noite de PSD. A ingestão de sacarose foi sempre maior em ambos os grupos. Não houve diferença estatística nas concentrações de CORT entre os grupos, mas as concentrações foram altos em comparação com a literatura. Houve prejuízo da memória induzido pela PSD e não houve efeito das soluções palatáveis sobre o comportamento de freezing no teste de condicionamento de medo ao contexto. Houve preferência por soluções de SUC e SAC. Estes resultados sugerem que o comprometimento da memória induzida pela PSD, não é uma consequência dos elevados níveis de CORT e que o eixo HPA desempenha um papel secundário neste fenômeno. / REM sleep deprivation or paradoxical sleep deprivation (PSD) in rats induce cognitive impairment. Previous studies have shown that exposure to stress is also able to produce similar consequences, which may indicate that stress hormonal mediators could be responsible for cognitive deficit in PSD. Previously, it was shown that the supply of palatable solutions during sleep deprivation is able to reduce the release of ACTH and corticosterone, hormones involved in the stress response and allegedly responsible for the cognitive impairment. In the present study, one hundred and thirty rats were divided in three experiments for memory, hormonal and palatability test. On the memory and hormonal test 60 rats were divided in two groups, Control (CTL) and PSD, and were offered water, saccharose (SAC)(13,5%) or sucralose (SUC)(6%) to drink during the PSD (96h). At the end of the sleep deprivation period, CORT levels were measured and the individuals were trained and tested in the contextual fear-conditioning task according to the experiment. During the PSD period they were weighed daily, food and fluid intake were assessed twice a day. For palatability test two groups of 5 rats were offer SUC and Water or SUC and saccharose SAC solution, total intake during 4 days was measure. Compared to their control counterparts, all PSD rats lost weight during the PSD and chewed more than the CTL during the third and fourth night of PSD. Fluid Intake for SAC treatment was always higher compared with the other solutions and during PSD. There was no statistical difference in CORT levels between groups and treatments, but the levels where high compared to the literature. There was memory impairment induced in the PSD group and there was no effect of the palatable solutions on freezing behavior. There was preference for SUC and SAC solutions over water. These suggest that the impairment on memory induce by PSD, is not a consequence of high levels of CORT and that the HPA axis play a secondary role in this phenomenon.

“Comfort Food – Comfortable for Who?” – Questions the true comfort of our eating habits, critically addressing our prevalent unsustainable animal-based food cultures by exploring genuine comfort food through design. In my process I have researched why our eating habits are so hard to change, from our psychological attachment to meat to the patriarchal foundation of our food cultures. By exploring the medium of food and cooking as design practice, I have encountered how essential the element of comfort is to human’s eating experience. Resulting in an approach to plant-based eating where the essential comfort factors of our food cultures meet the beyond-human comfort needs.