(Do not) Listen to your body 

By:

Dr. Madan M Vasandani

 

I am sure all of you reading this article are wondering what’s with the title. When it comes to illness and limitations, all of us know when our body is not in prime condition. When we are jogging, and our calvesstarts to hurt, we all know that we need to stop. The only time when we should NOT listen to our body is at times of hunger. Many individuals age 30 and above have reached a stage when they are constantly hungry. It’s a funny feeling because it is present most of the time. I had my lunch at 12 30 pm and now it is 1 30 and my tummy is grumbling and I am asking myself “Didn’t I just have a heavy lunch?” The question “why do we feel hungry?” seems to be very obvious to answer. It is because we need to get nutrients to survive. Hunger is the motivation for us to be able to know what we need to get the nutrients in our body. But how do we really know that we are hungry? The answer can be analyzed by three different components: biological, learned, and cognitive.

     1.    Biology – Some of the theories that are under this category includes gastric contraction – we feel hungry when our stomach contracts. Well how does this theory explain hunger in those individuals who have had a gastrectomy. Glucose theory states that hunger is due to low glucose levels in the blood. When glucose was infused into a hungry person’s blood, stomach contractions decreases but hunger persists.

      2.    Learned – As human beings, we cannot ignore our psychological part, the learned and cognitive components of hunger. We humans use an external clock in our daily routine, including when to sleep and when to eat. This external time triggers our hunger. You are your own judge of whether this theory works for you. In addition to external clock, smell, taste or texture of food also triggers hunger. Think of the last time you said “I am hungry for something sweet” People keep feeling hungry until the four tastes – sweet, sour, bitter, and salty – are satisfied.

    3.    Cognition - Colors also contribute to hunger. Looking at a yellow banana makes one to want to eat it, but a red banana does not. Similarly, red or green can trigger hunger for an apple, but not blue. It is hard to find natural food with blue color, because Mother Nature does not produce blue food. Blue is said to be an appetite suppressant. Color greatly affects our hunger.

Hunger is a primary motivation. Despite strong beliefs that hunger is caused biologically, this motivation is controlled not just by physiology, but also psychology as well. There are two kinds of hungers; one is caused physiologically, and the other is caused psychologically. What makes human beings different from animals is we eat not only to feed our bodies to satiate physiological hunger, but also to feed our minds to satiate psychological hunger as well. Although these two kinds of hunger interchangeably cause hunger by affecting one another, putting some food in our mouth is not necessarily the right way to feed our psychological hunger.

The reason why Obesity is rapidly becoming a pandemic is because it is in our nature to eat. We eat satisfy our biological needs and also our psychological need. This is the reason why the approach to management of Obesity is not only by diet or exercise but also psychological support.

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