You’ve had a bad breakup, a rotten day at work, or you’re just too exhausted to cook. You’re craving comfort, something to soothe your mood. So, you reach for… a salad? Probably not. But if it’s happiness you want, those leafy greens are a far better choice than a tub of ice cream or a bowl of mac and cheese. “You might have an initial nice feeling, but comfort foods are ultimately discomfort for the brain,” said Dr. Uma Naidoo, a nutritional psychiatrist, chef and director of nutritional and metabolic psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Eating ice cream and high-carb foods feels good because it sends tryptophan to the brain, said Naidoo, who wrote a book published in 2020 that explored the connections between food, mood and the brain. Tryptophan is an amino acid that helps the body make serotonin a mood-boosting hormone. But that good feeling can …