Taking A Closer Look At The Factors That Impact Hunger, Satiety and Thirst
How many times have you asked yourself whether you are really indeed hungry when you are craving food?
Have you ever eaten just because the clock says it’s lunch or dinner time, not really considering whether or not you are truly hungry and in need of food at that time?
One reason that many of us are not at a healthy weight is because, somewhere along the line, we stopped listening to our body signals that naturally tell us when we're hungry and when we're full (satiated). We know now there is more to hunger than can be explained by just our biology or physiology. What may be almost more important than what our biology tells us about hunger is the component of psychology and connection with our brain— the learned and cognitive components of hunger.
Our external biological clocks can sense when we need to sleep and when to eat. This external time triggers our feelings of hunger. For instance, when the clock says 12 pm, lunch time, many people feel hungry just because it is lunch time. This hunger is triggered by learned behavior. Your appetite may come calling in the middle of the day around 11:30am-1pm, or when you see everyone else stepping out for lunch. Appetite is the psychological desire for foods or beverages. We tend to start thinking about food, our appetite and what we want to eat at this time. In addition, the smell, taste, or texture of food around us also triggers hunger. But we may not always need to eat at that time.
The Hunger Scale
A hunger scale can help you learn how to tell the difference between true, physical hunger and hunger that's really just in your head. It can help you think about and assess what is really going on if you take the time to think about how you feel when the appetite or hunger feeling strikes. Are you bored? working on a tedious task? Feeling the stab of hunger pangs? Psychological hunger is a desire to eat that is caused by emotions, like stress, boredom, sadness, or happiness.
When you start feeling like you want something to eat, rate your hunger on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being starving and 10 being so full you feel sick.
A rating of 5 or 6 means you're comfortable—neither too hungry nor too full.
Getting too hungry can lead to overeating
Wait until your stomach is growling a little and don’t overeat.
1—Starving, weak, dizzy
2—Very hungry, cranky, low energy, lots of stomach growling
3—Pretty hungry, stomach is growling a little
4—Starting to feel a little hungry
5—Satisfied, neither hungry nor full
6—A little full, pleasantly full
7—A little uncomfortable
8—Feeling stuffed
9—Very uncomfortable, stomach hurts
10—So full you feel sick
To eat naturally, wait to eat when your hunger is at 3 or 4. Don't wait until your hunger gets down to 1 or 2. Getting too hungry can lead to overeating. When it’s time to eat, make healthy choices as much as possible. For your body to be truly satisfied, your meals need to be balanced. This means that each meal should contain a balance of carbohydrate, protein and healthy fats. It should also be tasty to you, so you feel satisfied (satiety). Don’t be afraid to let yourself feel some hunger between meals. Mild hunger for a short period is ok, and can even be a healthy thing to help the body flush itself of waste and better manage blood sugar levels (always check with your doctor, especially if you are diabetic). Plus, mild hunger is sign that you're not overeating.
But what we eat is only half the story of good nutrition.
The other half of the story is who we are as eaters. We are now discovering that the effects of stress, sleep and emotion are some of the most powerful drivers of nutritional health, natural weight, natural appetite and a healthy relationship with food— or put more simply, the metabolic state under which we eat our food.
Another reason for confusion about whether we’re hungry or thirsty, is that much of the time, we don’t wait to actually feel hunger or thirst before eating or drinking. Instead, we eat and drink because we’re bored, because we like the taste, because everyone else is, or because we think we might get hungry or thirsty soon.
Can you tell the difference between hunger & thirst?
You might think it’s easy, but the reality is often quite different.
Our internal hunger and thirst cues can be muddied by our emotional states, or not as evident when we’ve developed the habit of ignoring our body’s cues altogether. If you are drinking enough water, your urine should be very pale yellow (it’s darker when you’re dehydrated). Once you’ve eliminated mild dehydration as a cause of whatever sensations you’re feeling, it’s easier to identify hunger.
To distinguish between hunger and thirst, start paying attention to your own internal hunger cues.
Physical hunger grows gradually as the time since your last meal increases. How soon you’ll start feeling hunger depends in part on the size and composition of your previous meal. Most hunger cues occur between two and five hours after eating (again depending on last meal and energy/exercise output).
In times of stress, many people turn to food. Most of us have experienced first hand, that stress has the capacity to derail healthy eating patterns. The scientific definition of stress is any real or imagined threat, and the body’s response to that threat. The brain in this situation doesn’t distinguish between a real stress and an imagined one, so it produces cortisol which can create a situation where the absorption of key nutrients is lessened.
The system that regulates emotions and key physiological functions such as hunger, thirst, temperature, sex drive, heart rate, and blood pressure is the limbic system. Within the limbic system is the hypothalamus, which integrates the activities of the central nervous system (the mind) with the biology of the body (regulation of hormones in the endocrine system). They hypothalamus helps to regulate appetite and weight and keeps the body’s internal functions in balance. It integrates all the sensory, emotional, and thought input and translates that information into physiological responses.
Mechanisms in the brain and the gut are constantly scanning the body during a meal to determine nutrient status, whether or not the body still needs more, what’s it missing, and when it’s time to signal that the body is indeed full. Much of this information comes from tasting our food, and from giving the body enough time to process a meal. Studies show that it takes the body approximately 20 minutes to realize that it’s full. So time is so important to enjoy a full, healthy eating experience.
But many of us do not have the luxury of time when we sit to eat a meal. Our culture largely does not promote slow food and a focus on pleasure at mealtimes (although grassroots efforts are trying to change attitudes about slow vs fast food and creating a culture of pleasure for production and enjoyment of food ). We tend to overeat most are when we’re anxious, stressed, or unaware. A relaxed, pleasured eater has natural control. A stressed eater produces more circulating cortisol – our main stress hormone. Cortisol desensitizes us to pleasure, when that happens due to day-to-day stressors, we need to eat MORE food to feel the same amount of pleasure as when we’re relaxed. If we’re stressed out about the food we are eating, we generate more cortisol.
Avoid fast, mindless eating.
Taking time for Meals, eating slowly and getting pleasure from mealtimes is a powerful nutritional strategy for optimum metabolism.
Taking time with meals, along with bringing your full, hearty participation to that meal, is a powerful nutritional strategy for optimum metabolism and natural appetite regulation. Focus on slow, relaxed eating, and schedule regular, nourishing meals during the day, and spend time savoring each bite. If you are eating with company or family, focus on conversation, and eating slowly, enjoying eye contact and putting down your fork between bites. These steps will help you slow down and savor your meal in more meaningful way.
Taking time with meals and bringing full, hearty participation to the meal is a powerful strategy for optimum metabolism and natural appetite regulation.
At each meal, remember to:
• Slow down with food, put your fork down between bites, chew more.
• Increase the amount of time you devote to your meals.
• Take in the eating experience and let yourself feel present and nourished.
These are simple strategies you can do right now that can make a huge difference when it comes to easy and natural appetite regulation, digestive efficiency, and overall metabolic power.
Managing and controlling hunger, appetite, satiety and thirst may seem second nature at least physiologically. But if you consider the ways in which we eat, the feelings we have and why we’re eating, we can begin to manage our food intake, our mood, and absorption of the nutrients we get from our food— at a healthier level.
References:
Katz DL, Friedman RSC (2008). Hunger, appetite, taste, and satiety. In Nutrition in Clinical Practice, 2nd ed., pp. 377–390. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
Chang T, Ravi N, Plegue MA, Sonneville KR, Davis MM. Inadequate Hydration, BMI, and Obesity Among US Adults: NHANES 2009–2012. Ann Fam Med. 2016;14(4):320-324. doi:10.1370/afm.1951
Healthy Eating: Recognizing Your Hunger Signals | Kaiser Permanente. https://healthy.kaiserpermanente.org/health-wellness/health-encyclopedia/he.healthy-eating-recognizing-your-hunger-signals.zx3292. Accessed November 2, 2019.
Maier SU, Makwana AB, Hare TA. Acute Stress Impairs Self-Control in Goal-Directed Choice by Altering Multiple Functional Connections within the Brain’s Decision Circuits. Neuron. 2015;87(3):621-631. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2015.07.005
Hunger vs. thirst: Are you eating when you should be drinking? The Seattle Times. https://www.seattletimes.com/life/wellness/hunger-vs-thirst-are-you-eating-when-you-should-be-drinking/. Published February 28, 2017. Accessed November 2, 2019.
Ahima RS, Antwi DA. Brain regulation of appetite and satiety. Endocrinol Metab Clin North Am. 2008;37(4):811-823. doi:10.1016/j.ecl.2008.08.005