by Pamela Kay

Created on: January 08, 2010   Last Updated: April 23, 2010

Comfort foods bring us warmth when winter rages outside our door, they wrap warm arms around us when we feel alone, they caress us when we're bruised and broken and they smile at us when our hearts are full of pain. In reality, comfort foods don't really change the problems in our lives, but they do make them more bearable

There is no cut and dried list, written in stone, as to what exactly makes up a comfort food. We each have our own favorite and we each know when to reach for it. We may or may not remember why it brings us comfort or when it joined our list but I believe most of us do.

Maybe your favorite comfort food is macaroni and cheese or maybe chicken and dumplings or homemade chili or a steaming bowl of vegetable soup. Banana pudding, warm donuts, deep-dish cobblers, fried chicken, gooey brownies, biscuits and gravy, catfish and hush puppies, meatloaf and mashed potatoes are all comfort foods to the masses. Which ever it is, you know it and turn to it in times of trouble.

The only requirement for being a comfort food is that it comfort you and make you feel better. It can't just taste good or sate your hunger, no, no there is more to it than that. It must make you feel better from the inside to the out, ease your mind and give you a few moments of feeling that everything will be okay.

Sometimes that's all the human spirit needs; a few moments, just a small amount of time at ease, a moment without the weight of defeat, a chance to regroup our thoughts and to remember what is really important in life. How, you may ask can food do this? It isn't a big mystery, it's really quite simple.

Comfort foods contain memories. Memories of a time in our life when all was well and we were happy. It may be the smell that wafts us to a safe place, or a taste that recalls a perfect time, or the texture that transports us back to a time when we were a child and the burdens of the world belonged to someone else. The memory may even be a sub-conscious one that only our inner being remembers.

Only you can define comfort food, only you know the places and memories that ease your troubled mind. It doesn't matter if it's a bologna sandwich or a bowl of corn flakes, if it comforts your heart, it's a comfort food and it's worth it's weight in gold.

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