Feeling a bit down? Worried? Need cheering up? Go grab yourself a bag of chips.

Forget the guilt thing because it’s okay, it’s official a portion of chips will make you feel better in just 20 minutes.

Chip experts are convinced that, as well as putting a smile back on people’s faces, the carbohydrate-packed treat can also restore calmness.

For some people just the taste and smell is enough to trigger feelings linked to happy times, such as seaside days out, we are told.

The Potato Council asked academics to get scientific proof of why chips have the feelgood factor.

As part of their study, researchers at Aston University asked 60 men and women to watch a short film of a speech and images taken after the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Half were then given a magazine to take their mind off the film, while the other half were given a plate of chips.

Dr Mike Green said: “There are a number of possible nutritional and psychological mechanisms which could explain the mood changes after eating chips. It might be down to the biological effects of nutritional components on brain chemistry, or simply a pleasurable oro-stimulatory sensation, triggered by the way chips taste.”

Ellie King, of the Potato Council, said: “We know that as a nation we all love chips, but now we can begin to further understand the reasons why.”

At Guiseley’s world-famous chippy Harry Ramsden’s, the finding are no great surprise.

“There’s a definite calm about the place, it’s cheaper than therapy and everyone always leaves with a big smile on their face!” said company boss Marija Simovic.

Chippy name game

According to a study into chip-eating habits, fish and nerks or fish and derks is what us Yorkshire folk ask for when we want fish and chips.

Although the word ‘chip’ is almost universal, it is apparently what is served up with them that takes on different names.

* Scratchings and bits are known as screeds in Plymouth.

* A breadcake gets called a bap, a stottie, a barm or batch in other places around the country.

* Fishcakes are rissoles in South Wales.

* A snag is a sausage in Portsmouth.

* Asking for snozzsup will get you a sausage and chip supper in Glasgow.