Feeling hungry – diagnosis or symptom?

Appearing periodically hunger known to all and sundry. Girls who are “on a diet” are sometimes afraid of the feeling of hunger, and people who love to eat delicious food sometimes don’t even wait for it to appear.

It can be mild, constant, debilitating, haunting, sucking, true or false, occurring before or even after eating. What kind of sensation is this, and do we know everything about it?

Causes of hunger

What reasons underlie the feeling of hunger? Is it just one factor, or are there several? Of course, there are many reasons, and even moreover, it is unlikely that all of them are known. Surely we can name only a few reasons that provoke hunger.

The true feeling of hunger is caused by the following factors:

• peristalsis of an empty stomach, which contributes to the appearance of “rumbling” in the stomach and is accompanied by irritation of mechanical receptors in the gastric walls;
• a decrease in blood glucose levels, at the same time as glucoreceptors located in the brain, digestive system and liver send signals to the brain about the need for food;
• lowering the ambient temperature – it has been experimentally proven that an increase or decrease in heat production in the body affects thermal receptors, which affect the feeling of hunger. That is, the colder the environment, the more energy we need, and the more we want to eat, and vice versa;
• prolonged consumption of large amounts of high-calorie food causes a more frequent feeling of hunger, as the stomach “gets used” to the constant load and continues to “demand” it further.

However, there is also the concept of a false feeling of hunger, when the body does not experience a shortage of energy, but it seems to a person that he wants to eat. This condition has slightly different reasons than a true feeling of hunger.

Symptoms of hunger

The feeling of hunger is a natural feeling that can manifest itself in various symptoms.

Feeling hungry during pregnancy

During pregnancy, women experience inexplicable problems with digestion: the appetite becomes either “wolfish” or completely strange – you want not just to eat, but “something like that.” Moreover, the notorious pickles are not the limit! During this period, many people demand strawberries in the middle of winter, ice cream at 3 a.m., and jam spread on a sausage sandwich.

The reason for all this is considered to be a sharp and almost daily change in the level of hormones in the body, especially in the first trimester. The female body is a very delicate and complex mechanism, capable, however, of thinking through everything to the smallest detail. When pregnancy occurs, he understands that now it is necessary to do everything possible to maintain and develop this condition. And in order to have enough nutrients for the baby’s growth under any conditions, the body begins to stock up on them. Hence the frequent attacks of hunger during pregnancy. This accumulation is regulated strictly at the hormonal level.

Sometimes feeling hungry during pregnancy indicates a deficiency of some vitamin or element in the diet. Hence the uncontrollable desire to eat meat among vegetarian women, as well as attempts to chew plaster or eat inedible things. Such conditions cannot be ignored: consult your doctor; you may need to take a course of vitamin and mineral supplements, and also reconsider your diet.

Diagnosis of hunger

Before you start fighting the pathological feeling of hunger, you need to understand why it occurs. Analyze your lifestyle and diet, listen to your body: perhaps the reason for increased hunger lies on the surface?

• If you have psychological problems (eating disorders, problem eating, frequent stress and nervous tension), then you should seek help from a psychotherapist.
• If you are following a diet on your way to a slim body, but you are constantly tormented by the feeling of hunger, it means that you have distributed your nutrition incorrectly, or your diet is unbalanced. Seek help from a qualified nutritionist.
• If your blood glucose levels are normal or even high, but you still feel hungry all the time, you may not be producing enough insulin or your cells may not be sensitive to it. In such a situation, you should contact an endocrinologist: this condition is observed in diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome.
• If your feeling of hunger is aimed at a specific product, that is, you want not just to eat, but to eat something specific, then you need to be examined for a lack of vitamins, minerals, amino acids or other essential elements in your body.
• If you have an increased, constant feeling of hunger, although you eat “for two” and do not gain weight, you may have intestinal parasites. They absorb all the beneficial substances that you consume with food and constantly require supplements. Test your stool for helminth eggs and consult a parasitologist.
• With hyperthyroidism and menstrual cycle disorders, hormonal levels in the body fail, which leads to an increase in appetite and a constant feeling of hunger. Advice: contact an endocrinologist or a gynecologist-endocrinologist, he will prescribe all the necessary examinations.
• If you have increased acidity of gastric juice or a lack of enzymatic activity of the stomach, contact a gastroenterologist or therapist for further research.

Take blood tests for biochemistry, blood sugar and hemoglobin levels. Remember that only a competent, adequate specialist will help you make an accurate diagnosis.

Treatment of hunger

Hunger is a vital feeling for us that does not need to be treated. Hunger tells us that we need to replenish our body with useful nutrients to enable it to function normally. If you stubbornly ignore or “kill” the feeling of hunger in yourself, then sooner or later irreversible changes may occur both in the digestive organs and in metabolism and in the brain centers. Correcting such a pathology will be very, very difficult.

All nutritionists unanimously advise approaching diets wisely, without leading the body to exhaustion. You should respect the needs of your body and understand them.

How can you influence pathological hunger?

• Take tests for the concentration of trace elements in the blood, in particular chromium, calcium and zinc, and then, if necessary, correct the deficiency of any of the elements.
• Treat helminthic infestation – the cause of not only an increased feeling of hunger, but also the same vitamin deficiency in the body, intoxication and digestive disorders.
• If your blood sugar level is elevated, consult an endocrinologist: if diabetes is detected, the doctor will prescribe special treatment.
• In case of diseases of the stomach or intestines, comprehensive treatment should be carried out: be it gastritis with high or low acidity, gallbladder pathologies, dysbacteriosis or irritable bowel syndrome.
• It is necessary to adjust your diet, do not refuse meals, and do not limit the number of calories below 1400-1500 per day. You need to eat in small portions so as not to overeat, but eat often – up to 5-6 times. This diet plan will allow you to monitor your hunger.
• It is necessary to limit the consumption of simple sugars, because they cause a sharp surge and an equally sharp decline in the amount of glucose in the blood, which provokes an increased feeling of hunger and requires more frequent meals.
• You should monitor your sleep and rest patterns. Adequate sleep is one of the ways to normalize the failure of the hunger and satiety centers. It has been proven that a person suffering from sleep deprivation eats much more than those who sleep at least 7-8 hours of quality sleep.

Preventing hunger

An important element of proper nutrition and the prevention of hunger is a calm environment in which food is eaten: you should eat slowly, always at the dinner table, preferably at the same time.

If you’re going to work or school, or just on a long walk, it’s a good idea to take a healthy snack with you so you don’t have to stop at hot dogs, hamburgers, chips and cookies later. Bring an apple, banana, a handful of nuts or dried fruits. If you will be away for a long time, then take a side dish and stewed vegetables in a tray.

Another reminder that you should eat often, but in small portions. It’s better to undereat than to overeat.

Don’t sit too long at the dinner table: once you’ve eaten, get up, otherwise lunch risks “smoothly turning into dinner.”

By the way, scientists have provided convincing evidence that the prevention of hunger should be carried out in the womb. The nutritional and lifestyle habits of a pregnant woman directly affect the eating behavior of her unborn child. And a woman’s bad eating habits can later affect the appearance of a food addiction in the newly born baby.

For example, excessive consumption of sweet and fatty foods during pregnancy can cause the child to develop an increased appetite in the future.

Older children should also be prevented from feeling hungry. Experts have found that those children who often watched TV from an early age (more than 20 hours a week) are more likely to suffer from hunger and look fuller than those children who watched TV less often. In addition, it is no secret that food eaten while watching TV or playing computer games is digested much worse and over time can cause diseases of the digestive tract. In order to instill in a child the good habit of eating only in the kitchen or dining room, adults must first set an example.

Forecast

Talk about the forecast feelings of hungerwithout knowing its cause is difficult. Of course, if you influence the original cause of hunger, that is, cure the provoking disease or eradicate a bad habit, then the prognosis for hunger can be called positive.

Bad and good habits are common to all of us. However, not everyone takes them seriously, although our well-being and health depend on many habits.

Try not to overeat; moreover, you should get up from the table slightly before finishing.

Eat slowly, savoring every bite of food.

If you are losing weight, but could not resist and ate something forbidden, never blame yourself for it. In fact, by and large, nutritionists allow you to eat almost everything. You just need to keep an eye on the quantity.

When creating a menu, do not forget about vegetables and herbs: as statistics show, for some reason such healthy products are the last to be remembered.

You should not make losing weight your only and main goal in life. Sooner or later you will understand that a slender, fit body is wonderful, but even better if it belongs to a person with impeccable health.

Of course, it is impossible to correct the feeling of hunger in one day. The foundations and habits that we have nurtured within ourselves for years cannot be eradicated in an instant. Restoring health and giving up bad habits often involves a lot of hard work and willpower. Don’t try to change everything at once – replace bad habits with good ones gradually, for example, one habit per week or month. The main thing is not to give up and move forward.