You had a bad day at office and headed straight for your favorite ice cream after work.

Or, had a fight with your best friend and felt the urge to indulge in some sinfully creamy pastries. This strong urge to fall back on some particular type of food when you feel low is a very common practice.

The food which gives you a feeling of comfort when you are feeling low is called comfort food. Basically any food, consuming which a person derives a sense of emotional well being or which improves the emotional well being of a person for a short span of time, is called comfort food.

Comfort food helps you to feel relieved and relaxed and eases the stress and tension that may have given you the low feeling. It helps to increase your positivity to a large extent. Comfort food can also help you to come out of any guilt feeling for a temporary time period. Though the affect of comfort food does not last long, but it helps you to feel good and positive when you are truly down.

Food choices regarding comfort food varies from person to person. The food that makes you feel good and positive does not necessarily have the same effect on your friend or spouse. The food choice may also vary from one culture to the other.

One may also choose a particular food item as his comfort food on the basis of the emotional connection with the food or of any nostalgic factor that may be associated with the person as an individual or as a part of the culture he belongs to. Sweets, ice cream, fast food, potato chips and chocolates are most famous comfort food across different cultures.

It has been found that women mostly find solace in snacks and fast food like potato chips, ice cream, chocolates, cookies, sweets and desserts. Whereas, men mostly find comfort in more filling food items such as soup, steak, casseroles etc. Young people are more prone to choosing snack related items as their comfort food in comparison to those who are above 55 years of age.

It is quite interesting to know that often men consume comfort food when the need is generated by positive feelings while for women it is their negative feelings or emotions that prompt them to find solace in comfort food.