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Food is a love language whispered in the ears of billions because the world is full of amazing food, prepared as regional specialties of all kinds. And each speaks to a dedicated constituency. But cookies? Cookies cross borders without a passport!
Many of us can still smell the baking cookies of our childhood kitchens, rainy afternoons scented with cinnamon, chocolate, and above all, butter. But cookies transcend the bounds of Western culture, existing in virtually every culinary tradition on earth. From the Philippines to Africa, you’ll find a cookie whose scent ignites childhood memories in a way no other food can.
Whether your sector of the food love language is pub-style fish n’ chips or a fluffy pavlova, like almost every living human on earth, you’ll have a special soft spot for a certain kind of cookie. So, what is it about the cookie that turns our collective crank? Why do we all fall so hard for this simple mouthful of crumbly, crunchy sweetness? Let’s read about the 5 reasons why cookies make you feel good.
1. Nostalgia
While it’s true that not everyone enjoys the perfect childhood, every childhood encounters the cookie. The cookie’s role in childhood is that of goal, reward, treat, and site of conflict. You want the cookie, you’re rewarded with the cookie, the cookie is your treat, and your hand was not caught in the cookie jar. But you still feel the thrilling, guilty pleasure of the last time it was!
Maybe you’re lucky enough to have enjoyed a childhood graced with those rainy, cookie-scented afternoons of memory. Or maybe your treasured childhood memory is a favorite commercially-concocted cookie. Either way, the nostalgia of the humble cookie’s role in childhood is powerful and one which many of us share in numerous versions with numerous varieties of cookies.
But nostalgia is so often a driver of human behavior that it’s our number one reason why cookies make you feel good. They do so by taking you back in time to a gentle, beloved memory. This magic is achieved most readily by scent but a cookie’s flavor and texture can also induce time travel. The cookie is a tangible connection to the sweet, carefree days of childhood.
2. Butter
Butter is the heart of the cookie. Butter is the reason a truly inspired cookie clings to our imaginations. We encounter a cookie redolent of butter once and never again will anything else do. We become the enemies of margarine after our first encounter with the creamy smoothness of butter. We can smell it a mile away and we seek it out!
We follow it across the street, noses raised to its temptation, pursuing it to the nearest bakery. We know we’ll find buttery cookies there, waiting to melt in our mouths as we sigh, eyes closed in delight.
And believe it or not, there are people who continue to hold the sublime nature of butter almost sacred, offering bagged cookies to those who hunger for such delicacies, made in the traditional way with butter as their foundation. These are the fine people who speak your cookie love language!
3. Feel-Good Hormones
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What do cookies and intimacy have in common? Well, for starters, dopamine and serotonin. These hormones make you feel good and they’re released during intimate moments and bouts of cookie-eating. The release of these two neurotransmitters makes eating cookies an act of self-love.
Those hormonal neurotransmitters have been known to lead people astray in their pursuit of the associated state of well-being. Their power cannot be denied, especially when it comes to eating cookies.
Your “reward center”, not satisfied with stopping at “just a couple”, will seek ongoing rewards. The trick is to stop, savor, and see things in proportion. Something as pleasantly delicious as a cookie is a matter of quality over quantity!
4. Living In the Moment
If there’s one lesson of the humble cookie that should be avidly followed, it’s that of living in the moment. Small and beautifully made, a good cookie teaches the beauty of the moment you’re living in. The cookie teaches us to slow down and savor. Brew a pot of tea or coffee, set some cookies on a plate. Sip, savor, and share. Or just be in the cookie moment as you contemplate the Zen of Cookies.
Cookies encourage a type of dreamy surrender to their disc-shaped deliciousness. Whether for the sake of casting your mind back to long ago, for the creamy decadence of butter, or for those feel-good hormones, cookies are a portal to living in the moment.
5. Craving Killers
If there’s one factor in the modern Western diet in need of immediate reform, it’s sugar. While cookies contain sugar, just one of these delightful morsels can kill the sugar cravings that bring bad news to your health outlook.
We all love sugar. But overindulging in its seductive delights can leave us vulnerable to myriad physical ills if we go at it too hard. Just one quality cookie can put your cravings to bed, maintaining you as the lean, mean uber-healthy machine you were born to be!
In fact, this 5th reason cookies make you feel good encompasses the other reasons. By offering a delicious moment of sugary, buttery goodness, you derive all the nostalgic benefits. You experience the rush of dopamine and serotonin as you live in the Zen of Cookie. That’s a lot of power packed into a cookie and a satisfying way to avoid overindulging in sugar!
Let’s Hear It for Cookies!
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The cookie is here to stay, proudly enshrined as an international icon of snacking goodness. These 5 reasons why cookies make you feel good are just the beginning of appreciating the contribution of the cookie to human happiness.
So, enjoy! Get happy with cookies, no matter where you are and no matter what cookies mean to you. You know they’re going to make you feel good and that’s well worth the price of admission!
