We keep seeking happiness. And this is the thing which tends to drift away so easily and without proper notice. Running after happiness, finding it and then losing it, just to rediscover it forms the stories of our everyday life. Staying happy amidst all odds is the biggest challenge and those who achieve the same, are the biggest achievers of this world.
But now, maintaining your "happiness levels" may not be that difficult with researchers at the University of Leuven, Belgium claiming that consuming fatty foods can allow you to stay in high spirits. So you will just be required to gulp in some amounts of cream-laden pastries and chocolates to boost up your mood almost instantly.
It is a known fact that there exists a strong connection between what goes inside our body and the emotional state that we experience. This study has also established our preference for comfort eating. For example, we grab a chocolate bar (a comfort food) and not an apple when we feel stressed out.
The researchers included 12 healthy individuals as the study subjects. They were not obese. A feeding tube was used to pass on a concoction of fatty acid or saline into the bodies of the subjects. The researchers chose fatty acid because it is available in plenty in the so-called comfort foods.
Researchers charted certain portions of the brain with functional MRI scans which allowed for lighting up of certain portions of the brain in times of sadness. The participants were made to listen to sad or neutral music and were also asked to see similar images.
They were asked to provide comments on their hunger status, feeling of fullness and mood before the MRI scan and even three times during the process. The subjects did not know whether they were being given fatty acid or saline.
The results indicated that the level of sadness was almost 50 percent lower in individuals who received the fatty acid in comparison to those who received the saline solution. The fatty acid emulsion was found to have impacted certain portions of the brain, which experiences activation or suppression due to emotion or mood changes. The fats were found to reduce some of the neural changes.
This study was conducted on individuals who were not obese. But does that mean overweight or obese people are happier? Then, does this mean that obesity or being overweight has at least one plus point attached to it? Researchers, it's now your call to find it out.
