Great News: Study Shows Pasta Makes You Happy
December 22, 2023
There’s nothing like a bowl of pasta. It is a favorite to many as the number one comfort food, but did you know pasta makes you happy? You read that right.
Pasta Study
A recent study has scientifically proven that pasta can increase a person’s happiness and boost their mood. The study was done by the “Behavioral & Brain Lab” at Italy’s Free University of Languages and Communication IULM. They discovered some interesting traits of how humans respond emotionally and neurophysiological to eating pasta.
Researchers examined the emotional reactions of 40 subjects who were 25 to 55 years old. They tracked their emotions using neuro-scientific and brain-tracking methods. These same methods are the ones used in lie detector tests.
The Happiest Results
They discovered that by consuming pasta, the individual has a powerful and lasting positive emotional-cognitive state. It is similar to the joy induced by doing your favorite activities like listening to music or watching a sports game or movie.
Out of the test subjects, about 40 percent considered pasta their comfort food. After consuming pasta, the response was happiness. Finally, 76 percent of respondents affirmed that eating pasta makes them happy. These findings reassured that people have a deep connection and love for pasta, explaining its popularity.
In fact, pasta is consumed the most in the United States than in any other country in the world. People in the U.S. consume 5.95 billion pasta every year. Italy takes home second place at 2.98 billion pounds.
Besides the emotional attitude and love towards pasta, there is scientific literature to support this theory. Pasta’s positive impact on mood within human beings is attributed to the presence of tryptophan and B vitamins. Tryptophan intake ensures mood regulation and B vitamins cause muscle relaxation and serotonin production.
As if we needed more reasons to eat pasta. So, if you are ever feeling down and need to cheer up, you can always rely on pasta to change your mood!
What do you think about this?
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