Eating curry can help beat the stress of the recession thanks to the release of pleasure-inducing endorphins, new research claims.
Chicken or beef madras is most likely to bring stress relief, according to the research by takeaway food website www.Just-Eat.co.uk. Vindaloo, Thai red curry, pasanda and jalfrezi were the next most effective.
Researchers found spicy curries had similar stress-busting properties to exercise, with the inclusion of red chilli peppers thought to be key to their impact.
"Despite it being common knowledge that exercise increases the release of endorphins helping improve mood, not many are aware that eating certain foods, including many curries can affect us in exactly the same way, which could explain why Brits have been ordering in their droves," said David Buttress, chief executive of Just-Eat.co.uk.
The website also said it had seen a 250% increase in orders of takeaway orders across its 2,480 partner restaurants since the start of the recession as people seek out comfort food.