Have you ever asked yourself this question? Many of us have so what makes feel hungry or full?
There are some short-term signals that tell us just that.
One signal is physiological many believe we get hungry because of a drastic drop in blood glucose levels, that are restored when we eat. However this is not accurate. Actually your blood glucose levels fluctuate very little over the course of a typical day. Nevertheless about 30 min’s before you eat there is a slight increase in blood levels of insulin and a slight decrease in blood levels of glucose. You blood glucose levels will go back to a baseline reading once the meal has begun, well before the food is digested and you don’t even have to eat they will return to that level.
An important signal is a hormone called Ghrelin this is typically called “THE HUNGER HORMONE” research has shown that is strongly stimulates appetite. Researcher Donald Cummings found that ghrelin seems to be involved in the long-term regulation of energy balance and weight. When subjects in his studies lost weight by dieting, there overall plasma levels of ghrelin --- and feelings of hunger ----increased.
Your eating behavior has most likely been influenced by years of classical conditioning. The time of day you normally eat triggers psychological changes, such as changes of blood levels of insulin, glucose, ghrelin , increased body temperature, and decreased metabolism. These internal changes increase you sense of hunger. Other things such as the sight of food utensils can trigger hunger. Now you see why watching TV commercials of different foods make you hungry. You all know them like Dairy Queen with their blizzards, McDonald’s Big Mac, Pizza hut and so on…..
The feeling of fullness or “satiation.” There are several signals that trigger satiation one of them is stretch receptors in the stomach. These stretch receptors communicate sensory information to the brain. The sensitivity of theses stretch receptors in the stomach in...