Comfort Eating by Female College Students in Maharashtra, India

Background Comfort eating is commonly reported in multiple countries. However, there is not much published scientific literature available about the same. The dearth of information in the Indian context on comfort eating prompted this work. Methods Female college students n=324 from Maharashtra, India were asked about the foods they associated with a sense of happiness, family childhood, stress relief, and positive and negative emotions after obtaining informed written consent. Results Participants listed 105 foods that provided them comfort, 61 traditional and 44 non traditional. The majority of students associated some foods with a feeling of happiness 98.5 and family and childhood 99.1 , preferring traditional foods more than non traditional foods. At least half the participants consumed comfort foods 1 2 times week, with traditional foods being consumed by more students than non traditional foods. More than half the students could not control eating certain foods 72.9 . More students found it difficult to control their intake of high fat and or high sugar, and high fat, high sodium foods. Overall, 44.7 n=144 reported that they felt guilty after consuming comfort foods. Among them, 29.8 felt guilty after consuming high fat, high sugar foods, 10.5 after high fat, high sodium, 38.0 after high fat, 12.2 after consuming high sugar foods and 9.5 after consuming low fat foods. Conclusion This study indicates that comfort eating appears to be prevalent in India. The results of the present study point out the need to work in this area and to pay particular attention to comfort food consumption among persons trying to lose weight, those who are under stress or are emotionally perturbed. Aditi Goyal | Nikita Khakharia | Aparna Thorat | Shobha A. Udipi | Rama A Vaidya "Comfort Eating by Female College Students in Maharashtra, India" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-7 | Issue-2 , April 2023, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com.com/papers/ijtsrd56210.pdf Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com.com/humanities-and-the-arts/education/56210/comfort-eating-by-female-college-students-in-maharashtra-india/aditi-goyal