Two-Thirds of Chronic Pain Patients Eat Comfort Foods to Help Them Cope
/By Pat Anson
A slice of apple pie or a bowl of ice cream are comfort foods to many people, giving us a mood boost (not to mention a sugar rush) during times of stress, loneliness or anxiety.
For many people with chronic pain, comfort foods are also a way to cope and distract during pain flare-ups. A small study in Australia recently found that over two-thirds of people with chronic pain eat to feel better.
“People who live with pain every day need to find ways of coping. We think about medication, physiotherapy or heat packs as pain management strategies, but we don’t usually think about food in the same way. Yet two-thirds of our sample said they turned to food at least once a fortnight when pain flared,” says lead author Toby Newton-John, PhD, a clinical psychologist and Head of the Graduate School of Health at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).
“Managing daily pain is incredibly tough, and medication often only goes so far. It’s understandable that people reach for something that feels good.”
The study, Eating to Feel Better: The Role of Comfort Eating in Chronic Pain, was recently published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings.
Newton-John and his colleagues surveyed 141 adults with chronic pain, asking why they turn to food during pain flares. Given a choice of nine possible answers (and being allowed to select more than one) the results show that over half (51.8%) ate comfort foods to “give myself a pleasant experience,” followed by “distract myself” (49.6%) and “reduce my emotions” (39%).
“That was the somewhat unexpected finding,” Burton said in a press release. “Comfort eating wasn’t just for the purpose of distraction or numbing negative feelings, although those were important too. For many, eating comfort foods provided a nice experience in their day and something to look forward to. If you’re living with pain all the time, that moment of pleasure becomes a pretty powerful motivator.”
To be clear, not everyone in pain eats for distraction or pleasure. Nearly one in five (18.4%) said they tend to eat less when in pain, and a fair number said they eat as usual (11.3%), whether they’re in pain or not.
The frequency of comfort eating ran the gamut from multiple times a day (14.2%) to several times a week (19.9%), to never (18.4%).
The survey did not ask participants what foods they ate, but researchers believe pain can trigger cravings for certain foods.
“There may also be a biological explanation. Research shows high-calorie foods can have a mild pain-relieving effect. Even in animal studies, rats in pain will seek out sugar. It seems it’s not just psychological. It's possible that there is a real analgesic property to these foods as well,” said co-author Amy Burton, PhD, a lecturer in Clinical Psychology at the UTS Graduate School of Health.
But eating for comfort comes at a cost. Nearly two thirds of participants in the study were obese (29.8%) or overweight (37.6%). Newton-John warns that food-driven relief can become part of a vicious cycle.
“Short-term, high-calorie food makes people feel better. It reduces pain symptoms and enhances pain tolerance. Long-term, it can fuel weight gain and inflammation, which increases pressure on joints and makes pain worse; and that can trap people in a spiral that’s very hard to break,” he said.
Pain management programs usually focus on medication, physical therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy. This research suggests a need to integrate diet and nutritional advice into pain management programs.
“We usually teach skills like relaxation, stretching exercises or how to pace activities, but we rarely talk about food in this context,” Newton-John says. “This work shows we need to help people recognise if they’re using food as a pain-management tool and give them alternatives.”
Previous studies have shown that healthy eating can reduce the severity of chronic pain. Regular consumption of vegetables, fruit, lean meat, fish, legumes/beans, and low-fat dairy products can lower pain levels and improve physical function, especially for women.
High fiber diets also reduce the risk of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, while promoting the growth of healthy bacteria in the gastrointestinal system to slow the progression of arthritis and reduce joint pain.
