I woke up this morning and told Maria that I thought we needed some Comfort Food this morning and we both had the same instant reaction: Jean’s Place.

Comfort Food is a relatively new idea in the psycho-spectrum of human anxiety and need. The term has been traced back at least to 1966 when the Palm Beach Post newspaper used it in a story:

“Adults, when under severe emotional stress, turn to what could be called ‘comfort food’ – food associated with the security of childhood, like mother’s poached egg or famous chicken soup.”

Comfort food is believed by many psychologists to be a good coping mechanism for soothing anxious or negative feelings.

According to Psychology Today, consuming energy-sense, high calorie, high fat, salt or sugar foods – ice cream, chocolate, french fries – can trigger the reward system in the human brain, giving a noticeable sense of pleasure or temporary sense of emotional elevation or relaxing.

In other words, it can cheer us up. It’s also evident that comfort food is not necessarily the healthy food we have been urged and nagged and scolded to eat. I am realizing that some foods tell us they can help once in a while.

For me, comfort food is most often breakfast – eggs, bacon, toast, home fries. When I was sick, I was deposited with my grandmother, she believed chicken soup was a miracle cure for everything but broken limbs.

But to me, the idea of Comfort Food is broader than just the food. We went to Jean’s when we got up, and the restaurant was jammed, we got the last table open in a corner. I felt comfortable in the place, and welcome. I ordered two eggs over light with home fries and wheat toast. The eggs and potatoes were perfectly cooked, the wheat toast was done just right.

We sat and drank coffee and tea and talked for a half-hour. It was just what we needed. (Going to the theater again tonight.)

One study divided college-students’ comfort-food identifications into four categories (nostalgic foods, indulgence foods, convenience foods,  and physical comfort foods) with a special emphasis on the deliberate selection of particular foods to modify mood or effect.

The study found that comfort foods do alter moods.

They altered mine just this morning.

Seeing Robin and soaking in the distinct atmosphere of Jean’s place, I thought the shrinks are aright, my mood did pick up, Maria and I – both a little low this morning – perked up and started returning to our normal energy levels, I think we are both pretty upbeat people when we aren’t burying dogs we love.

It didn’t hurt that Robin rushed over to give Maria a big hug (photo above) as we were leaving. Robin knows.  I guess there is such a thing as a Comfort Restaurant, it makes sense.

We went over to the farmer’s market after breakfast.  I bought Maria some beautiful flowers, and we got blackberries, home-made spinach, eggplant, and lasagna squares to eat during the week, and I got some cookies to bring over to the Mansion for the aides on weekend duty.

Two of the residents came over to hug me, they were crying about Red. I am sorry to have made them sad.

Giving things to people elevates my mood. I felt better and stronger by the minute.

Comfort Food is one of those terms you hear a lot, but I think I had to think about it to grasp what it can mean. I am pretty scrupulous about eating healthy food, open heart surgery is a good motivator, but I feel like taking the idea more seriously than I did before.