Every January, the resolution is the same: more greens, less cheese, fewer late-night carb raids. Half of consumers call healthy eating a top priority. Yet somehow, by February, the salad spinner is collecting dust and there’s a pizza box on the counter. The tension between what we want to eat and what we actually eat is one of the most relatable battles of modern life. Market watchers have described it as “a healthy tension between healthfulness and indulgence,” noting that while better-for-you foods continue to rise, “the opposite is also true.” So what keeps pulling us back? The answer lies in six iconic comfort foods that science, memory, and plain old craving have conspired to make almost impossible to resist.
1. Pizza: The Undisputed Champion of Comfort
The highest-rated comfort foods in the U.S. are pizza, mac ‘n’ cheese, fried chicken, burgers, pasta, Mexican food, ice cream, cookies, and chocolate – with pizza ranking first in most states, according to a Treadmill Reviews study. That’s not a coincidence. Pizza checks every neurological box: it’s salty, fatty, loaded with carbohydrates, and it smells incredible from three floors away. In a 2017 paper published in the International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science, Oxford psychologist Charles Spence wrote that comfort foods tend to be simple to make, are often associated with some kind of past celebration, and are nearly always calorific.
A study from 2020 in the journal Physiology & Behavior claims that there are “hedonic hotspots” in the brain – specific subregions that heighten the pleasurable sensation of pleasant tastes, such as carbohydrates, fats, and salts. Pizza hits all three. Pizza is a comfort food high in carbohydrates, which can provide a quick burst of energy and trigger the release of feel-good neurotransmitters like dopamine – and it’s often associated with social events like parties or movie nights, making it a popular choice for those seeking both social and emotional comfort. In 2025, the love affair with pizza isn’t fading – it’s evolving, with non-traditional crusts like cauliflower and multi-grain, and adventurous topping combinations featuring fruits, cheeses, and spicy-sweet drizzle sauces like hot honey.
2. Mac and Cheese: Childhood in a Bowl
There’s something almost unfair about macaroni and cheese. It’s warm, it’s creamy, it’s orange in a way that feels like a hug, and it practically weaponizes nostalgia. Mac and cheese is high in both fat and carbohydrates, which can activate the brain’s reward center and release feel-good neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin – and it’s often associated with childhood memories and feelings of nostalgia, making it a popular choice for those seeking emotional comfort. That combination is genuinely hard to compete with. Americans love pasta so much that mac and cheese is also considered a favorite side dish, along with French fries, mashed potatoes, and baked potatoes.
Whether or not eating comfort foods is an effective way to manage one’s emotions, people still do turn to comfort eating in order to improve their emotional state, possibly because they have developed an expectation that comfort food can provide psychological benefits. In fact, research from the University of New South Wales found that 81% of participants either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “I am confident that eating this food would make me feel better” before eating their comfort food. In 2025, nostalgic foods like mac and cheese are being remixed using different flavors, ingredients, and elevated presentations – but even the fanciest version with gruyère and truffle oil still satisfies the same core craving.
3. Fried Chicken: Crispy, Golden, and Completely Irresistible
Behind grilled cheese came fried chicken as a nationwide comfort food favorite, especially popular in Southern states including Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. Its appeal isn’t purely regional, though. The crunch, the salt, the juicy contrast between the coating and the meat – it triggers a full sensory event. Fried chicken is high in fat and salt, which can activate the brain’s reward center and trigger cravings – and it’s often associated with family gatherings and social events, making it a popular choice for those seeking social comfort.
About 32 percent of people eat comfort food in response to stress in their lives, and fried chicken sits squarely in that stress-relief category for millions. Researchers from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research discovered that stress took over the brain’s typical reaction to satiety, leading to the continuous activation of reward signals and consuming more palatable foods. The researchers confirmed that “chronic stress, combined with a high-calorie diet, can drive more and more food intake as well as a preference for sweet, highly palatable food.” Healthier versions have emerged – fried chicken isn’t stuck in time, with health-forward concepts such as air-fried dishes and innovative flavors gaining traction, but it does not lose the comfortable feeling that attracts people to it.
4. Ice Cream: The Universal Emotional Rescue
Ice cream after a breakup. Ice cream after a bad day. Ice cream just because it’s Tuesday. Ice cream is a classic comfort food that is high in sugar and fat, which can activate the brain’s reward center and trigger cravings. Its emotional reach is staggering, and the science behind it is equally compelling. As one researcher put it, “It’s not just that ice cream is really tasty. It’s that someone has developed a really significant meaning behind the idea of ice cream due to their relationships with others, and that’s what is triggering this effect.”
Nearly 75 percent of people who completed a survey on comfort eating described positive emotional effects after eating comfort food – including emotions like relaxation, neutrality, and happiness – consistent with research in the journal Appetite showing that eating high-calorie foods releases opiates and serotonin. The trade-off is real, however. In a 2022 poll of 2,000 U.K. adults, one in four people admitted to eating comfort foods at least five times a week, even though over half said those meals made them feel worse – and 57% confessed to being filled with regret upon eating their preferred comfort foods. Still, the tub gets opened. Every time.
5. Chocolate: The Mood Food That Comes With Complicated Feelings
Chocolate occupies a uniquely conflicted space in the comfort food landscape. It’s both the go-to fix and the source of post-indulgence guilt. Although chocolates are often chosen for sensory pleasure, they are also selected to enhance mood and relieve emotional stress, or potentially chosen for their perceived health benefits if stress adversely affects physical well-being. The brain chemistry behind this is well documented. The combination of high carbohydrate ingredients and rich flavor triggers strong pleasure signals in the brain – each bite delivers a quick dopamine fix, producing satisfaction that fades fast and fuels another urge to eat more.
Gender plays a fascinating role here. Research suggests that women were more prone to choose snack-related foods such as chocolate and ice cream for comfort, whereas men preferred meal-related foods – and one survey study found that the likelihood of women eating chocolate as comfort food under stress was three times higher than it was for men. A 2024 study published in Food Research International confirmed that under emotional stress, chocolate is chosen for its sensory appeal and its instant mood-enhancing effect. The guilt that follows is real, too – those who associate chocolate with guilt reported unhealthier eating habits and lower levels of perceived behavioral control over healthy eating when under stress.
6. Grilled Cheese: Simple, Warm, and Relentlessly Satisfying
The most popular comfort food in the country, earning the most-searched spot in six states, was the quintessential grilled cheese. That’s a remarkable statistic for such a simple dish. Two slices of bread, butter, and melted cheese. No pretense, no complexity, no apology. Research suggests that comfort foods remind us of our social ties, which means they may help us feel less lonesome when we feel isolated. Grilled cheese is the perfect embodiment of that idea – it’s the sandwich your mom made when you were sick, the late-night fix in a college dorm, the quick rescue on a rough evening.
Oxford experimental psychologist Charles Spence believes people associate comfort foods with positive and happy memories, both consciously and subconsciously – “it is a food that someone was given when they were looked after as a child, for example, and is something that, as adults, people reach for when they feel emotionally threatened.” The grilled cheese is the purest version of that impulse. Consumers’ desire to treat themselves isn’t going to disappear anytime soon, and consumers sometimes feel rebellious and want to break the rules around eating healthfully. Reaching for that buttery, golden sandwich is less a failure of willpower and more a deeply human response to a world that rarely slows down enough to let us feel truly comfortable – until that first melty, satisfying bite.
