Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren vogle bam here, And this is a
Speaker 1: classic brain Stuff episode. This one deals with the feeling
Speaker 1: of wanting to eat. It's a strange one because it's
Speaker 1: both physical and psychological and can present really differently in
Speaker 1: different people. Here's how it works, Hey brain Stuff, Lauren
Speaker 1: Vogel bam here. If you're anything like me and you
Speaker 1: were to keep track of some of your thoughts during
Speaker 1: a given day, Gosh, I'm hungry would appear on the
Speaker 1: list a few times, along with perhaps why am I
Speaker 1: keeping track of my thoughts? But why do we often
Speaker 1: feel hungry? Let's be clear, we're not talking about actual
Speaker 1: starvation or hunger as a pervasive global and social issue,
Speaker 1: which it is and is a whole other episode or seven.
Speaker 1: We're talking about hunger in typically healthy people with comfortable
Speaker 1: access to food. The hunger that are rises from the
Speaker 1: physiological need for nutrients to survive. Hormones and the nervous
Speaker 1: system regulate hunger and eating habits. But how the heck
Speaker 1: do we recognize when we want to eat even when
Speaker 1: we actually don't need food. We spoke via email with
Speaker 1: Richard Stevenson a professor of psychology at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia,
Speaker 1: where he studies human eating behavior. He says that hunger
Speaker 1: is by no means a universally identifiable sensation. He wrote,
Speaker 1: unlike fulness, which there is no mistaking, hunger is very varied.
Speaker 1: It is not a consistent sensation across people, and it
Speaker 1: has been claimed that feeling stressed can be confused with it.
Speaker 1: Even some of the biological functions that people associate with
Speaker 1: hunger growling stomach, for instance, aren't entirely fool proof cues.
Speaker 1: Stevenson said many people do not report stomach sensations when
Speaker 1: asked to describe what being hungry is like. Indeed, reports
Speaker 1: show that people cite headaches, weakness, mouth watering, and other
Speaker 1: non stomach related sensations as signs of hunger. Stevenson has
Speaker 1: also done research that indicates feelings of hunger and fullness
Speaker 1: are influenced by a myriad of factors, including genetic and
Speaker 1: psychological differences like depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. Then there's
Speaker 1: a really big factor. Our environment can easily convince us
Speaker 1: into thinking it's time to eat, whether we're hungry or not.
Speaker 1: Stevenson said that seeing, smelling, or even thinking about food
Speaker 1: will trick us into believing that our stomach is crying
Speaker 1: out for nutrients. He pointed out that this is why
Speaker 1: advertisements for food products work so well, and that affects
Speaker 1: not just appetite, but how much food we actually consume.
Speaker 1: A two thousand nine studies show that both children and
Speaker 1: adults eat more snacks after exposure to food advertising, and
Speaker 1: review found that food ads significantly increase unhealthy food intake
Speaker 1: in children. In fact, researchers coined the term hedonic hunger
Speaker 1: to describe the drive food consumption unrelated to the need
Speaker 1: for calories. This phenomenon might also give us a clue
Speaker 1: to another mystery of hunger. How can we claim ourselves
Speaker 1: ravenous only to find after time passes or a distraction
Speaker 1: interrupts whatever triggered the hunger pang that hunger has passed
Speaker 1: us by. Stevenson says this waning hunger could be related
Speaker 1: to the idea that our appetite isn't always activated by
Speaker 1: an actual need for calories, and that quote time is
Speaker 1: a potent queue to eat. If you usually eat at
Speaker 1: midday and you miss this, you will feel hungry if
Speaker 1: you notice the time. So what's the trick to deciding
Speaker 1: whether you're truly hungry? Is there a scientific method for
Speaker 1: being able to push away at bowl of chips that
Speaker 1: you don't need? Stevenson said in a word, no. Most
Speaker 1: of our biological machinery is geared to make us eat
Speaker 1: when we see food or things that remind us of food,
Speaker 1: which was terrific for our ancient ancestors when humans had
Speaker 1: to spend a lot of time searching for energy sources.
Speaker 1: But it might leave us at a disadvantage when surrounded
Speaker 1: by a huge spread of snacks right after a filling meal.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article why we feel
Speaker 1: hungry even when we're not on how stuff works dot com,
Speaker 1: written by Kate Kirshner. Brain Stuff is production of by
Speaker 1: Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff works dot Com,
Speaker 1: and it's produced by Tyler Clay. Or more podcasts my
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.