I hear this phrase in the title often from people. If you are experiencing situations such as “I do not understand that I am full, I cannot realize my feeling of hunger, it is as if I have to eat something, I cannot stop myself”, in this article I will talk about the process of hunger and satiety.
Hunger and satiety signals play a role in the regulation of our eating process. The senses of hunger, satiety and appetite enable the nutritional behavior to occur in a way that creates a balance between food intake and energy consumption.
Feelings of hunger and fullness occur according to our energy, water and other nutrient needs in our body. The feeling of satiety develops slowly. Signals first occur when the stomach and intestines fill up and pressurize the walls. As a result of this stretching, a signal is sent to the satiety center (hypothalamus) in the brain. This process takes place within 20 minutes of starting the meal. Therefore, in order to understand the feeling of fullness, we recommend that you eat food slower and chew longer. In addition to the hunger and satiety centers in the brain, glucose and free fatty acid levels and hormones in the blood also regulate the hunger-satiety balance. A decrease in blood glucose level and an increase in blood free fatty acid level arouse the feeling of hunger.
However, the state of hunger and satiety in the body is not just a physiological state, like the centers in the brain and the effects of hormones. Hedonic factors such as food taste, taste, flavor and social environment also affect appetite mechanisms. To learn more about hedonic hunger, you can go to my article titled “EATING ADDICTION”. In other words, it is necessary to separate this state of appetite from physical hunger. Appetite is a psychological phenomenon. For this reason, it is necessary to separate the concepts of satiety and satiety. While satiety defines the cessation of food intake, satiety defines the time from cessation of food intake to the occurrence of the feeling of hunger that develops after it.
Tasty high-energy foods desensitize the response to satiety signals and activate the reward system in the brain. Especially for sugary foods, since sugar follows the pathways related to addiction in the brain, it creates effects such as excessive consumption, deprivation and desire to eat. The pleasurable effects of food outweigh the need for food only in the state of hunger. Individuals who experience this condition often feel the desire to eat constantly in order to avoid the discomfort caused by deprivation, although they do not feel physical hunger. In this case, the words “I am not satisfied, I do not understand that I am satisfied” are the words that we hear a lot. In other words, even though individuals have experienced physical fullness here, they think that they are not satisfied because their emotional hunger continues. This is a sign of an eating behavior disorder.
In addition to these, the content of the meals we eat also affects our feeling of hunger. High sugar and fatty foods cause us to get hungry more quickly and often. Foods with high protein and fiber content prolong our satiety period. In other words, having a balanced meal also prevents us from getting hungry often.
If you read this whole process and do not think that your hunger is hedonic and you still do not understand that you are full, this may be a disorder related to the hunger and satiety mechanism in the brain or the functioning of your hormones. It can also be an indicator of insulin resistance. Therefore, it is useful to consult a doctor.
