Interestingly, men tend to choose savoury foods while women tend towards the sweets.

Regardless, the psychological benefit of comfort foods might be all in our heads.

A study published in the journal Health Psychology, researchers found that comfort foods do not soothe us any more than other foods – or no food at all.

Instead, the researchers said that we may be giving "comfort" foods credit for us feeling better when we would naturally boomerang back regardless.

The study, funded by NASA, explored the effect of food on mood in an effort to understand whether changing the diet of astronauts on long voyages could help counter the stressful environment and  tendency to lose weight.

To come to this conclusion the researchers, from Minnesota University, recruited 100 participants and asked them to choose a food that they thought would make them feel better if they were down.

They also chose foods that they didn't mind eating but didn't think would affect their mood.

Over multiple weeks, participants then watched films that were upsetting and filled in a questionnaire about how they were feeling.

Predictably, they felt distressed (so much so that several participants quit the study).

After each film some were given large portions of their chosen comfort food (these included freshly-baked chocolate brownies, warm apple pie with ice cream and macaroni  cheese), some were given the neutral food (typically nuts), while others didn't get any food at all.

Three minutes later, the participants filled out another mood questionnaire. All participants' distress had alleviated regardless of what and even whether they had eaten.

"Short-term mood changes were measured so that we could seek out psychological effects of these foods, rather than biochemical effects on mood from particular food components (eg., sugars or vitamins)," the authors said.

Previous research has found that certain foods – namely those high in sugar, fat or salt – trigger the brain's feel-good response. Despite this, mood changes may not be immediately measurable. One question, then, is whether the study would find a different outcome in people who regularly ate comfort foods or in those whose mood was low, not just a few minutes after a movie.

But, the authors say the results simply provide motivation to seek other methods of self-comfort and not as an excuse to eat poorly.

"Let's not say we're allowed to eat something because it will make us feel better about whatever we're suffering," Traci Mann, a psychology professor and the study's lead researcher, told The New York Times.

"People are looking for a justification to eat something unhealthy. Just eat the ice cream! It's not magical. But it is yummy."