HUNGER, FRIEND OR FOE??

First, let's talk about what causes hunger, surprisingly, there are a number of causes.

While the most obvious is that you need to eat, there are some underlying factors.

1. Blood sugar starts to drop. This is a trigger to initiate eating.

2. Your senses deceive you. If you walk by something that smells or looks delicious, it can cause those rumblings to start. Note: DON'T TRUST THIS!

3. You have an increase of the hormone ghrelin. This is your hunger hormone and increases your appetite. The lower your intake, blood sugar and sleep, the more ghrelin is produced.

4. You have a decrease in the hormone Leptin. This is the satiety hormone. It's produced by the fat cells. When these go down, you get hungry.

So let's answer the question, is hunger a bad thing?

No, because it helps you not die (which obviously is a good thing!) If blood sugar drops severely and for a long length of time, we can pass out and/or go into a coma. Certainly being under-nourished and in a severe state of starvation isn't good either.

However, it's very important to distinguish what the core causes are. So how do we regulate it?

● Volume is your friend. The higher the amount of volume, the more intestinal bulk and the higher amount of satiety you have.

● While fiber is a big part of this, it's not the only part. This includes whole food options in all areas: Protein, carbs and fats.

● For protein, meat sources like chicken, fish, beef. Carbs could include rice, potatoes, oatmeal. Fats: almonds, walnuts, avocado, egg yolk. Of course fruits and veggies.

● This one might surprise you, but get more sleep! Adequate sleep helps reduce ghrelin and increase leptin.

● Blood sugar stability. Going back to volume and slower digesting foods, this will also help reduce blood sugar from dropping.

● Meal timing. Spread your meals out evenly over the day or appropriately based on your activity levels. More activity, get hungry quicker, focus larger meals in these windows.

● Stay active. Utilizing the fight or flight hormone, by raising cortisol, this decreases hunger pangs (plus can distract us if our senses are causing the hunger issues).

Know what the true cause is. By taking a step back, you can determine what you should do, ignore, eat or modify habits.

Hunger is just one of the many feedback mechanisms of your body. As with most, they shouldn't be ignored but rather know and understand what is causing and adjust accordingly.