Hunger

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How does hunger work? Is hunger an automatic symbol that your body needs nourishment, or can it simply be a reflex to habit (ie, time of day)? Can you be hungry but not actually need food? Can you need food and not feel hunger?

― NA (Nick A.), Monday, 7 June 2004 20:18 (twenty-one years ago)

it's whatever factors that cause your brain to tell you that your hungry.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Monday, 7 June 2004 20:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Um, yeah.

― NA (Nick A.), Monday, 7 June 2004 20:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Food is an addiction, hunger is like smack withdrawal. Fortunately I kicked the eating habit long ago.

― Gear! (Gear!), Monday, 7 June 2004 20:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I think what we perceive as hunger usually has less to do with the body actually needing sustenance and more to do with the stomach getting empty and overacidic and uncomfortable. (That's where the "habit" comes in -- you wind up training your stomach to prepare for a big load of food at certain times.) Beyond that there's the issue of keeping your blood sugar stable, which is another thing you can feel sort of acutely in a "hunger" sense; after that, I'd guess the body's actual need for sustenance is sort of a more subtle part of the actual hunger response. (I have no scientific basis for guessing any of this, apart from the beginning stuff about the stomach.)

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 7 June 2004 20:55 (twenty-one years ago)

um, yeah.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Monday, 7 June 2004 20:57 (twenty-one years ago)

some links

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 7 June 2004 21:00 (twenty-one years ago)

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