Research paper
Tomiyama AJ, Dallman MF, Epel ES. Comfort food is comforting to those most stressed: evidence of the chronic stress response network in high stress women. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2011 Nov;36(10):1513-1519. doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2011.04.005
Why we cite it
First cross-sectional human evidence for the chronic stress response network model previously demonstrated only in rodents by Dallman (2003). Tests whether the animal-model pathway — chronic stress → comfort food consumption → abdominal fat accumulation → dampened HPA axis — operates similarly in humans. The study of 59 premenopausal women shows that high-chronic-stress women eat more comfort food, carry more abdominal fat, and have blunted cortisol responses, consistent with a self-reinforcing feedback loop. One of the most heavily referenced citations in the project: 7 references across 6 files, including companions 19, 49, 84, and 167.
DOI: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2011.04.005 · PubMed 21906885 · Publisher