Why Do We Have Hunger?

Our body begins to crave for food, when we need it. How do we know that we are feeling “hunger”. How does our mind get the message and make us feel “hungry”. Hunger is not connected with emptiness of stomach, as is widely believed. A baby is born, empty stomach, yet without feeling hungry for several days. People do not feel hungry when they are sick or feverish.

Hunger begins with the missing of some nutritive material. When blood vessels lack these materials, a message is sent to a part of the brain that is called the “hunger centre”. This hunger centre works like a brake on the stomach and the intestines. The hunger centre slows up the action of the stomach and intestine as long as the blood has sufficient food. When the food is missing from the blood, the hunger centre makes the stomach and intestine more active. This is the reason, why a hungry person hears often his stomach “rum-bling”.

Our body does not crave in any special food when we are hungry. Nourishment is just wanted. Our appetite sees to it that we do not satisfy our hunger with just one food, which would be unhealthy. To quote, it would be hard for us to take in a certain amount of nourishment all the time, in the form of potatoes. But, if we eat soup until we have enough, then P’-e.at and vegetable until we have had enough, then dessert until enough is in, we can take in the same quantity of food and enjoy it.

How long can we do without food? It is purely individual oriented. A very calm person can live longer without food then an excitable one because the store of protein in the body is used up more slowly.