Unfortunately, I was unable to access the whole article, not even in the Sprague Library. But from the first part of the article, I think the author's association of food and comfort was very true. We do use food to try and make people more comfortable in an unknown situation. Parents use food to soothe a sick child in the same manner. We use 'comfort foods' to appease people, old and young, on regular basis.
I remember being sick as a child, my mother always made her 'all healing' chicken soup. Since she told us that it would make us feel better, it always did. Was it the words of reassurance from her or was it the actual soup? I think that it was her assuredness that it would make us feel better. That and the fact that mom sat with you as you ate the healing soup.
Food is regularly used to try to make people feel better or to soothe anxeity in unknown situation or even to comfort those who are bereaved. In some parts of the world, people bring pies and cakes to new neighbors to welcome them into the area. Some cultures insists that you must eat when you visit in their homes. In all these situations, food is offered as a way of comforting the person into new and unknown situations.
Okay, good beginning. Maybe you can make use of your new expertise that is resulting form reading so many food labels!
ReplyDeleteNOTE: The font you are using for some of this is actually too small to read. See if you can adjust that please.
Dr. Freed