Why and How to Control the Constant Feeling of Hunger

PHYSIOLOGICAL HUNGER VS. EMOTIONAL HUNGER

Have you ever wondered why we feel hungry? It seems obvious, but the possible answers are: (1) Because we need to meet our body's nutrient needs to survive. (2) Because our body seeks to maintain cellular structures and functions. (3) Because we seek to provide ourselves with energy to perform any activity or work.

The physiological and molecular mechanisms of everything involved in food intake are very complex and still not well understood. Trying to answer this difficult question raises another one: Do we always eat because we need nutrients? When we feel hungry, we commonly believe it's because our body needs energy, but the reality is that it's not always the case; hunger can appear for different reasons. Therefore, if we ask ourselves, how is the sensation of hunger generated?, the answer is not simple, and it can be analyzed from a psycho-socio-cultural and a biological point of view.

Now, knowing that hunger can be triggered by multiple reasons, what are the most common causes and how can we detect them?

Our emotions play an important role

Emotions are affective states that indicate personal internal situations, motivations, desires, needs, and even goals. Each of us experiences emotions in a particular way depending on our experiences and personality. We use all this to assess a specific situation and, therefore, it influences how we perceive the situation and react to it. These reactions can be innate, while others are acquired.

For a long time, emotions have been underestimated, and more importance has always been given to the more rational part of the human being. The extensive literature on weight loss or gain covers many aspects, such as prevention, pathophysiology, nutritional treatment, and associated physical pathologies. However, the same importance has not been given to the psychological component, which could influence weight gain and our relationship with food, as well as motivate the abandonment of nutritional treatments and possible related pathologies. For all these reasons, it is easy to relate our emotions to our diet; this specific circumstance we will call emotional eating.

Sadness, heartbreak, abandonment, guilt, or anxiety are some of the feelings that may be trying to express themselves through conflicts with food. These eating conflicts can be understood as a way of expressing feelings or emotions that we often do not recognize, but our unconscious tries to show us. That is why the first step is to stop and think about what is happening to us, to put it into words. This can help us control the situation of emotional hunger.

Types of emotions

So, emotional eating means eating in response to emotions, whether negative or positive, where food becomes the substance that relieves and regulates them.

Positive emotions are those where we use food to enjoy and celebrate, such as at parties and family or social gatherings. In fact, some authors support this idea by pointing out that positive emotions can also be related to this form of eating, without it being perceived as something negative. For example, from the time we are babies, we begin to associate our emotions with food. When a baby is emotionally affected, they calm down through feeding and contact with their caregiver. This relationship in itself is not negative; it is an act of love and care; however, over time and with certain associations, we create an emotion-food relationship.

We must also bear in mind that there are emotions that do not have to be positive or negative, as it depends on the value each person gives them, such as boredom, which can also be related to emotional eating. Therefore, we agree that there is an emotion-food relationship and that emotional eating fulfills various functions.

It should be noted that when we refer to emotional intake, we are not only referring to increasing the amount of food; emotions can also affect us by reducing our appetite. In the same way that emotional eating does not always occur with foods of low nutritional quality, it can also occur with nutritious foods. What characterizes emotional eating is not the food itself, but the reason for eating it, which has a cause or seeks a poorly managed emotional effect.

Eating more due to anxiety?

It is very common that during consultations, many patients whose goal is to lose weight spontaneously state phrases that allude to the term "anxiety." Phrases like "I feel anxious to eat" or "I eat due to anxiety" are among the most heard. We can define anxiety as the pathological counterpart of normal fear, and it manifests as changes in mood, thoughts, behavior, and physiological actions. Adequate management of anxious symptoms allows for better tolerance, and consequently, greater adherence and permanence to body composition change treatment. To achieve this, a multidisciplinary approach to the patient is necessary.

Physiological mechanisms or the instinct to feed ourselves

Food intake is an important part of human behavior, and although it has a very important emotional-social conditioning factor, there are physiological mechanisms that regulate it, to which greater importance is given and which are known more accurately. These multiple factors that have shown a relationship with appetite and satiety include hormones and various neurotransmitters. There are many theories, based on biological aspects, that try to explain how the sensation of hunger originates. In general terms, we can say that it is influenced by several biological parameters: circadian cycles, body temperature, current weight, percentage of adipose tissue, muscle mass, stress level, hours of sleep, nutritional deficiencies, menstrual cycles, etc.

Physiological hunger is the instinct to feed ourselves to obtain the nutrients our body needs to survive and function properly. States of hunger and satiety are controlled by the central nervous system when food reaches the stomach. It is a mechanism that has been optimized throughout evolution and has allowed us to survive.

This type of hunger is characterized by being gradual, appearing at least 2-3 hours after your last meal, and you feel that, even if you don't eat immediately, you can wait to eat later. It considers several food options because the focus will be on nourishing yourself, meaning it's not the desire to eat a specific food and you don't associate it with negative emotions, you don't feel guilty for physiological hunger. It responds to the hormone ghrelin; and ceases with leptin, which develops the sensation of satiety, so we can say that it self-regulates, that is: the more you eat, the more satiated you feel, and it is "easy" to stop eating once you feel satisfied.

Tools to reinforce healthy eating habits

Knowing how our hunger and satiety regulation system works allows us to distinguish the complexity of its nature. This makes it easier to consider a nutritional strategy to follow for appropriate weight loss treatment. Let's see what tools can improve this situation, potentially leading to well-being and achieving the set goal.

The use of nutritional supplements that contribute to the improvement of body composition is popular. For example, the use of Apple Cider Vinegar which has gained much popularity among people who aim to lose weight. Studies done so far indicate that apple cider consumption with high-carbohydrate meals can help weaken the glycemic response and possibly blood glucose control in diabetics.

Therefore, individuals with diabetes or who want to lose weight could benefit to some extent from its consumption. On the other hand, apple cider consumption slows down gastric emptying, i.e., the time it takes for the stomach to empty after eating. This translates into increased satiety and consequent lower food consumption; however, as it is a product of recent scientific interest, much more research is needed.

From our perspective, the sensation of hunger and satiety are necessary for our well-being, but we must learn about them. A diet based on emotional impulses will mold the person, especially the relationship with decision-making about what to eat according to their emotion-food relationships with the need to obtain a state of pleasure, which takes precedence and hinders the sensations of physiological hunger. Knowing the emotional factors will allow us to work on and reinforce healthy habits.

Conclusions

Therefore, the treatment when facing a negative situation of emotional eating is not based on the elimination of said emotional eating as the main objective. Rather, it is based on filling the toolbox with other resources and coping strategies that accompany emotional eating, in addition to investigating the reasons that lead us to it. We encourage you to reflect and become aware of how different emotions affect your eating habits.

Always consult a specialist to help you correctly identify the different causes that may be generating difficult-to-manage eating situations, such as a continuous feeling of hunger. Let them guide you in the proper use of possible tools and strategies!