Two Scoops

Take two scoops immediately and thereafter one teaspoon every few seconds. Since the beginning of Romantic movies the heroine has gone to ice cream as her choice of breakup comfort. Is this film imitating life or are we now so ingrained with the Hollywood ice cream image that life is in actual fact imitating film?

Let me create the scene: the guy has just broken the girl’s heart; she reaches for the trusty tub of ice cream and starts processing the emotional trauma one delicious spoonful at a time, while usually watching other Romantic movies. Is there any scientific reasoning for this? According to a recent study on the Brain’s pleasure zones ice cream shows an immediate response to pleasurable taste, meaning eating ice cream gives us pleasure, but surely so does eating most food?

Ice cream has become the symbol in movies for the grieving recently-dumped girlfriend. This is probably due to the fact that eating ice cream appears ‘prettier’ than say stuffing one’s face with a few hamburgers. Also audience members might start to feel uncomfortable if the heroin were to drown her sorrows in a bottle of Vodka. Yes, ice cream seems to be the more socially acceptable vice and has now become a movie staple food when dealing with troubles of the heart, but after reading some comments from soompi.com it’s clear that most women rather reach for the tissues than ice cream and find eating the creamy dessert mixed with tears unsettling. As Mythbusters might say, this myth is busted.