More than two in three people who live with chronic pain reach for comfort food when they experience flare-ups, researchers have found.
A group of 141 adults with chronic took part in a survey which aimed to explore the reasons why people are more inclined to tuck into treats when their pain is particularly bad.
The results show the main reason was “to have a pleasant experience” (51.8%), closely followed by “distraction” (49.6%) and “to reduce emotions” (39%).
Co-author Dr Amy Burton, a lecturer in clinical psychology at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), said: “That was the somewhat unexpected finding.
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“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.
“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.”
Around one in five people live with chronic pain and while comfort eating may provide short respite, it can become a vicious circle as it can lead to weight gain which can make an individual’s pain worse.
Professor Toby Newton-John, from UTS, said: “People who live with pain every day need to find ways of coping. We think about medication, physical therapy 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.”
The research team says its findings demonstrate the need to build dietary advice into pain management guidance for people living with chronic pain, to help break the cycle.
Professor Newton-John says: “We usually teach skills like relaxation, stretching exercises or how to pace activities, but we rarely talk about food in this context.
“This work shows we need to help people recognise if they’re using food as a pain-management tool and give them alternatives.
“Managing daily pain is incredibly tough, and medication often only goes so far. It’s understandable that people reach for something that feels good. But awareness is key, both for clinicians and for patients, to escape this cycle.”
Read more in Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings
