Everything about that dessert—the look of the pale pink foam curling gently upward in narrow glass flutes; its airy texture and not-too-sweet flavors of cream and berry—will always mark that time in my life, and she will be there. My grandma has now been dead for several years, but when I do, from time to time, have that dessert, it's a carousel of familiar faces, smells, and emotions. Mostly, it is evocative of comfort.

It's not a strange notion that our individual relationships with certains foods can be incredibly complex. From the most basic form of biologic necessity, to neurochemical, social, even existential interactions, eating is rarely as simple an act as it seems. But, are emotional or social ties to food enough to save lives?

That appeared to be the case earlier this month when two police in Mexico city were ostensibly able to persuade a suicidal man to live with an offering of tacos. The story went viral.

And rightly so: there isn't much the internet likes more than feel-good stories and food (OK, there are definitely some other things, but we aren't going to talk about them here). But the incident was reminiscent of another event about a year ago, in which the San Jose Police Department used a pizza-delivering robot to talk a man on a freeway overpass out of killing himself. The bizarre similarities between the two occurrences—a suicidal individual being pulled back from a literal and figurative edge through the promise of food—illuminates the psychological significance of food, particularly in emergency situations like these, and hopefully helps to explain just how deep our ties run with the things we eat.

MUNCHIES contacted David Klonsky, a professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia who specializes in suicide and self-harm, to help contextualize what is actually happening during these tense moments. Klonsky explains that "overwhelming pain, combined with hopelessness that anything can be done about the pain, are the number-one motivations for suicide." However, there is a "tremendous barrier" between between individuals who feel suicidal and those that actually attempt the act. The disconnect between feeling suicidal and making an actual attempt is how these standoffs with police can occur.