FatScrap 27th September to 3rd October 2010 - What Are You Hungry For?

Hi and welcome back!


Being hungry for something means that brain is receiving signals that you need satiating but sometimes it is not food that you need…

There are two kinds of hungers; one is caused physiologically, and the other is caused psychologically. We eat not only to feed our bodies to satiate physiological hunger, but also to feed our minds to satiate psychological hunger as well. So when you are feeling hungry, try tuning into the signals and perhaps you will recognise that it may be your mind that needs feeding rather than your body.

Hunger can be triggered by many different factors, externally and internally.

Externally, time can trigger hunger. We see the clock saying 1pm lunch time and feel hungry just because it is 1pm. We have learnt to be hungry at this time of day. So equally, if you are not hungry at a certain time of day, e.g. breakfast, then you can learn to be.

Hunger can also be triggered by sight, smell and taste so keeping foods out of sight is a good way to avoid eating them. This can be more difficult when faced with the colourful array of junk foods at places like the petrol station but once you have turned yourself off to the sight, smell and taste of them it will be easier to not respond to these foods. Further more on the subject of sight, colour can greatly affect our desire for a food. Often we are attracted to a food because of its brightly coloured packaging rather than the food itself! Apparently we are not attracted to blue food as this not a natural food colour so the colour blue can be an appetite suppressant!

I have noticed that when I have travelled East, I find that I feel less hungry and far more satisfied and this is because each meal is designed to satisfy the taste...sweet, sour, salty and bitter using herbs and spices. You could try following these principles with your meals and see if you notice that you no longer crave certain tastes.

Internally, hunger can be triggered by:

• Blood glucose levels and insulin so this is why it is important to keep eating slow release energy foods;

• Body temperature – hunger is triggered when the body feels cold;

• Equilibrium - the body maintaining it’s natural balance so hunger will be triggered if starvation mode is reached;

• And interestingly, hunger can be triggered by setting boundaries around how much you think you should eat, in other words, if you eat a smaller portion than you think you need you are more likely to feel hungry.

But what about those psychological hunger, the needs that you are not filling in your life? The needs you are not fulfilling may be causing feelings in you that you don’t like, don’t want to deal with, don’t understand, don’t think you should have and don’t want  so you end up trying to smother, fill, bury, drown, push down, squash or change these feelings with food.

Of course, knowledge plays a great part in what you are hungry for. Understanding and recognsing your needs, how food affects you and how you respond to it will trigger your choices. But the question is..

Are you hungry enough to make the choices that will get you where you think you want to be?

Sue x