Comfort food: Cold comfort.

I don't understand why it's not all bacon.

This, the "most wonderful time of year", is perhaps when we also need the most comfort due to the stress of forced familial cheer, over-the-top consumerism, wall-to-wall holiday muzak and the unsettling feeling that you're just not damn cheerful enough. And when you need comfort, what better place to turn than weed comfort food. Or if recent studies are to be understood, it's more like, "comfort food". Blame it on astronauts.

NASA noticed that astronauts lose weight when traveling in space, as every gram and calorie has to have an equivalent amount of money and rocket fuel to get it up into space, and freeze-dried astronaut food ain't exactly enticing. Would there be an advantage to serving "comfort food" to help with weight and mood on a long trip, like say, to Mars?

Mmmmm space fruit.

Long story short, if your in a foul mood, eating food that you find comfort (which tends to be high in calories, fat, sugar and salt) does not elevate the mood any quicker than if you eat normal food or even nothing at all.

Dr. Mann said the study’s findings helped demystify the belief that comfort food is uniquely comforting. “Let’s not say we’re allowed to eat something because it will make us feel better about whatever we’re suffering,” she said. “People are looking for a justification to eat something unhealthy. Just eat the ice cream! It’s not magical. But it is yummy.”

Looking back over the stretch of my life, particularly in my preteen years, I found great comfort in food, and the more I ate the more I felt comforted, a feed-back loop, no pun intended. 

Although research has shown that eating food high in fat, sugar or salt activates the brain’s reward system, Nicole M. Avena, a neuroscientist and assistant professor at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai who writes about eating disorders, said in an email that the Minnesota study suggested that such neural response may not translate into measurable mood changes. Dr. Avena said it would be interesting to see whether these results would hold up in studies of subjects who are obese or regularly eat comfort foods.

While your typical astronaut candidate may not bury themselves in kit kats and ding dongs to simply bear the existential angst of puberty in early 80s Staten Island, this approach may indeed have a mood-altering effect. Where universal-response to food stimuli ends and where eating disorder begins might have been outside the confines of this study. Maybe eating tons of junk did not brighten my Smiths/Cure/Joy Division-soundtracked black moods as a kid, but it did give me distraction and the illusion of comfort.

Michael Pollan's mantra: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." leaves the door open for filling in details. Perhaps I would addend this: Find comfort in healthy food, find comfort in treating yourself and your body well. Don't use comfort as an excuse to abuse yourself on the regular. And for heaven's sake, yes, ice cream and treats in moderation are just fine.

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I am taking a one week break from recording, but will be back in the new year with the latest weigh-in, fun fun fun…

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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2687
Just surving the holidays, not eating too much crap.

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BIKE CREDIT: 1670
MONDAY COUNT: 2,645

SLEPT: 8:30pm - 5:30am, 9 hrs
A day on the bike.

AM SNACK: 5:45 am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 9:30am, steel cut oatmeal, 150mg caffeine, 450 cal

BIKE SNACK: 11:45am, granola bar, 220 cal

BIKE SNACK: 12:30pm, granola bar, 220 cal

BIKE SNACK: 1pm, granola bar, 150mg caffiene, 220 cal

BIKE SNACK: 2pm, chocolate cookies, 390 cal

BIKE SNACK: 3pm, gatoraide, 130 cal

BIKE SNACK: 4:30pm, devil dog, apple pie, 680 cal

DINNER: 6:15pm, chipotle burrito, chips & salsa, 1455 cal

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, chocolate cookies, 390cal

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TUESDAY COUNT: 2990

SLEPT: 9:30pm-11:30pm, 1am-6:30am, 7.5 hrs
Body a bit strung out from the ride.

AM SNACK: 6:45am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10am,  Fage with honey, almonds, vanilla, 450 cal

LUNCH: 12:30pm, almond butter and grape jelly on whole wheat, health salad, pickle, 690 cal

PM SNACK: 3pm, momma salad, Grazebox seeds, 270 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, poppa salad with Italian, 200 cal

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, kind bar, 200 cal

DINNER: 5pm, hake, asparagus, 400 cal

EVENING SNACK: 6pm, latkes, +/- 300 cal

EVENING SNACK: 6:15pm, digestive cookies, 320 cal
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BIKE CREDIT: 1460 cal
WEDNESDAY COUNT: 2790

SLEPT: 9pm-6:30am, 9.5 hr
A nice ride up to Nyack.

AM SNACK: 6:45am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:15am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 9:45am,  steel cut oatmeal, 150mg caffeine 450 cal

BIKE SNACK: 11:30am, granola bar, 270 cal

BIKE SNACK: 12:15pm, granola bar, 270 cal

BIKE SNACK: 1pm, digestive cookies, 415 cal

BIKE SNACK: 3pm, granola bar, 270 cal

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, poppa salad with Italian, 180 cal

PM SNACK: 6pm, momma salad with Grazebox cashews, 320 cal

DINNER: 8pm, pork tonkatsu with rice, cabbage, curry, fried gyoza, water, +/- 1000 cal

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, digestive cookies, 415 cal

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, almond butter & chocolate chips, +/- 500

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THURSAY COUNT: 2590

SLEPT: 12am-6:30am, 6.5hr
Nice dinner with a friend.

AM SNACK: 6:45am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 10am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11am, fage yogurt with honey, vanilla, almonds 450 cal

LUNCH:  2:15pm, chicken sausage, sting beans, mushroom curry, 580 cal

PM SNACK: 3:15pm, momma salad, grazebox popcorn, 220cal

PM SNACK: 5pm, poppa salad with Italian dressing, 180 cal

DINNER: 6:45pm, herring, latkes, brussel sprouts, chocolate, +/- 1000 cal

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FRIDAY COUNT: 2420

SLEPT: 11pm-6am, 7 hr

AM SNACK: 6:30am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10am,  yogurt with honey, vanilla, almonds, 450 cal

LUNCH: 2pm, shiritaki noodles with shrimp and shitake mushrooms, poppa salad with Italian dressing, 500 cal

PM SNACK: 3:45pm, momma salad with cheezits, 310 cal

SNICKLE DINNER 1: 7:15pm, vegan pizza-like thing, fried vegan chickpea cube sticks, vegan cookies and chocolate 'creme', vegan carrot cake, water, +/- 1000 cal