I’m going to be honest — I don’t know one person who hates macaroni and cheese. Even though I’ve never formally given a poll for everyone to take, I think it’s a universally loved food amongst those who enjoy pasta. Luckily, an actual satisfaction study was done that (kind of) involves mac and cheese. It proved that since it’s the perfect combination of fat and carbs, it’s the perfect dish that gets us fired up.
The study was published in the journal Cell Metabolism. To evaluate each food, researchers made a list with three categories — fat, carbohydrate, or fat plus carbohydrate. Our beloved cheesy pasta is, of course, in that last grouping — but, it wasn’t necessarily one of the foods being ranked. Instead, the study focused mostly on snacks.
The lucky participants ranked snacks by their familiarity and their personal preference. After that, they participated in a brief fast before being brought back into the lab for a breakfast of champions that included orange juice, cheddar cheese, both white and whole-wheat toast, butter, and strawberry jam. Yum, right?
After digging in, they were given an exercise. They only had five euros to spend and needed to spend it on one of the snacks they rated in the first part of the study. And — because it was scientific — they were hooked up to a fMRI scanner while they perused the snacks.
Thanks to the scanner, which monitored brain activity, researchers found that not only were those studied willing to spend more on the snacks that included both fat and carbs, but they seemed more excited about them. That means the fat plus carbs combo is a surefire success. Sorry, other food.
It was Popular Science that first made the connection to mac and cheese, which is the perfect blend of carbs and fat. Everyone should bow down to this discovery. It explains why we get excited when mac and cheese is on the table. And it kinda-sorta makes mac and cheese the ultimate comfort food.
Next time you’re looking to cheer up a friend, forget the candy and wine. Bring on the mac and cheese.
If macaroni and cheese is, in fact, your favorite food, but you want to supplement it with some protein, try the recipe for chicken stuffed mac ‘n cheese that we created here at So Yummy!
