What is hunger
Hunger is a condition that signals the failure to provide essential nutrients to our body, as evidenced by a decreased level of glucose in blood. The level of this simple sugar is recorded in the hypothalamus by the one there center of hunger and satiety. The feeling of hunger appears approximately 3 to 4 hours after eating the last meal. Failure to satisfy it at the right moment leads to its increase, which means that postponing eating meals, which are often used by people on a diet, causes them to eat more a larger portion of the meal later. The portion you liked earlier will turn out to be insufficient to satisfy this discomfort.
Hunger – a Mental or Physical Phenomenon?
Hunger, in addition to the unpleasant physical symptoms such as a rumbling abdomen or an empty stomach, it also causes more related symptoms the sphere of the psyche. It has a strong influence on the decrease in the ability to maintain attention and focus on the activities performed, which significantly hinders professional and social functioning, but also causes inconvenience in terms of emotional life – it lowers the mood, triggers irritability or apathy.
Very often, hunger does not come from feeling it physically, but rather from feeling it emotional hunger. It is a term reserved for the way people deal with emotions through food. This type of hunger is often felt not as empty stomach, but as a feeling of discomfort around the mouth – it is a desire to eat something resulting from an attempt to change one’s emotional state, which in some way distorts the image of the hunger-satiety system.
How Can I Cope With Hunger?
Often in people who suffer from various kinds eating disorders whether it is obesity and overweight, or anorexia and bulimia, or compulsive overeating – there is a problem with the regulation and feeling of hunger and satiety. The system responsible for these functions, in a sense, does not work properly for these people. What could be then helpful in that cases?
- Nalies to remember about five meals a day – 3 larger dishes and 2 smaller snacks. Eating them regularly is the key to success! Thanks to this, the system of hunger and satiety will be regulated, the feeling of hunger will again become a significant signal and not constantly felt as in the state of starvation caused by the use of drastic diets.
- It is worth consuming more or less every day the same number of calories to stabilize your metabolism.
- Paying attention to the appearance of the meals, savoring their taste, eating at a slow pace – these are tips to help you eat less and at the same time satisfy your hunger.
- When you feel hungry, it is worth checking when the last meal was eaten and whether it contained the right amount of calories. If there is a likelihood that there is hunger emotionsand whether other non-physiological factors – it is worth taking up other activity, helping to cope with emotions in a different, adequate way.
So how do you deal with emotional hunger?
- Do your best defuse emotions;
- Don’t let it accumulation of voltage. If you feel bad, express it;
- Apply prophylaxis – develop your own way of coping with stress (take care of regular physical activity, relaxation).