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Asked by terimater2 to Aime, Akshat, Diana, Gemma, Judith on 13 Jun 2011.
Question: what decides that your hungry in your body
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Akshat Rathi answered on 9 Jun 2011:
After a few hours of eating food, a small portion in your brain called Hypothalamus releases hormones which cause you to feel hungry. There a few suggested reasons why such a signal may be sent by this part of the brain. The only reason that convinces me is that the lack of glucose in the blood can cause the hypothalamus (which is responsible for keeping various things in your body balanced) release those hormones.
Although it has been a long time since I read a book on the physiology of the human body, this is what I found to be the most convincing answer.
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Gemma Sharp answered on 9 Jun 2011:
As Akshat says, hormones can signal to the brain that you’re hungry, but I think there are probably other, more psychological factors as well.
For example, every day for lunch I have a big bowl of soup and a roll, and that fills me up, but then as soon as I’ve finished I always have a sneaky look at the vending machine to see if anything there takes my fancy.
I know I can’t be hungry, because I’ve just eaten, but that doesn’t stop me *feeling* hungry. I guess that’s probably psychological.
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Judith McCann answered on 10 Jun 2011:
I agree with Gemma, the vending machine in our common room is far too tempting 🙂
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Diana Samuel answered on 13 Jun 2011:
Physiologically, there will be a number of factors such as muscle contractions that spread from the stomach to the small intestine (making that growling sound); but (as Gemma stated) there will be other reasons, too; for instance, eating that final slice of pizza because it tastes so good, even though you feel like you’re about to explode.
Comments
keeley commented on :
Thats making me more hungry 🙁
Helen commented on :
Gemma’s spot on! I spend quite a lot of my time working with people who are obese who “know” rationally they aren’t hungry but they still want to eat food. Food is more than calories – for some people its a comfort when they are stressed or unhappy (and some of us LOSE our appetite when we are stressed or unhappy).