This Is How You Provoke And Satisfy Hunger
Hunger is a sign of your body that it lacks food. But we don’t always interpret this feeling correctly.
Being hungry doesn’t necessarily mean you should eat a meal. Sometimes hunger can be attributed to other circumstances and can be satisfied again without a meal. But how do you provoke and satisfy hunger?
How does the feeling of hunger arise?
Hunger can have many causes, and it doesn’t always mean your body is really lacking in food. Hunger is basically nothing more than a feeling. Which is usually interpreted as “I have to eat something”.
The feeling arises in many ways and can therefore have many causes. Of course, this also means that the sensation of the necessary food intake can be satisfied again in different ways.
Even if you have a rumbling stomach, you don’t really have to eat anything. Stomach growls only come about when the stomach contracts. However, the less content there is, the greater the likelihood that this process will cause the characteristic noise.
The feeling of hunger arises as a reaction to the following body processes:
Low blood sugar level
When blood sugar levels drop, it sends a hunger signal to the brain. Not only can blood sugar levels drop because you really need to eat, but it can also plummet because too much insulin has been released.
High levels of insulin can be your body’s response to caffeine or sugar, for example. If your blood sugar level is low and you are in hypoglycaemia, avoid sugar and consume complex carbohydrates (cereals, whole grains).
If you always eat enough complex carbohydrates in the form of whole grains and little to no sugar and its relatives, you are making sure that your blood sugar level rises and falls slowly and that sudden food cravings are rare.
Smells
If you perceive a smell that is pleasant or tasty for you, this can also provoke a feeling of hunger. This feeling can first be classified as appetite. If the feeling of appetite persists for a long time, because the pleasant olfactory stimulus persists or intensifies, this can also lead to a feeling of hunger.
One of the reasons for this is that the smell of a delicious meal alone leads to increased segregation of the digestive juices. Our mouths are literally watering and everything in the stomach is being prepared for a meal.
In the opposite case , negative smells can also spoil any appetite and drive away any thought of food intake. Feelings of disgust are particularly effective “appetite killers”.
Taste and appetizing foods
Surely you know that: actually you are not hungry at all and take a bite from a food that you like and that tastes particularly good to you. Sometimes it is the mere appetizing sight of a food that makes you “hungry for more”.
The mechanisms that lead to the feeling of hunger in this case are identical to those that can be triggered by smells. Advertising knows these mechanisms and uses them successfully by displaying particularly appetizing serving suggestions on their products.
But how do you satisfy hunger?
In principle, there are few triggers that make you feel like you need to eat food right away. If you know it, you can influence how often you are hungry and what you do about it. Simple rules are:
- Avoid sugar and its relatives (honey, maple syrup, etc.).
- No snacks between meals
- Enough whole grains
- Caffeine (coffee, cola, tea, …) only with meals.
- Avoid food smells outside of meal times.
- Understand the mechanisms behind appetizing photos of food.
If you are hungry and you know that you have eaten enough and that it is only a matter of appetite or cravings, drink a large cup of herbal tea. This is how you satisfy hunger, because the tea fills your stomach and sends certain satiety signals to your brain. In addition, the warmth of the drink reinforces the illusion of actually ingesting food.
