The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.
—Mother Teresa
Hunger is more than a growling or gnawing feeling in the pit of our stomach. That is true physical stomach hunger, but
hunger takes many forms. We often experience other forms of hunger and translate them into a hunger for food. If we are to recover from overeating, we need to become familiar with all the forms of hunger and how we might be experiencing them in our lives. Then, we can satisfy our deeper hungers and appetite for life.
What are some of the other forms of hunger?
Head Hunger is when we think we should eat something but we’re not really hungry. Or we may choose to eat something we don’t really want but think we should (for example, a diet food); but the truth is we want
something else. Our mind is making the decisions here, not our real hunger.
Habit Hunger is the habit of eating because we normally do (for example, a meal time), even though we’re not really hungry. We’re eating out of habit. We often do this in front of the TV at night or on the
computer.
Eye Hunger is when we see something delicious (for example, a pastry in a shop window) and we want to eat it, though we’re not hungry.
Taste Hunger is when we want to keep eating something because it tastes so good, even though we aren’t hungry. Or we want to sample and taste certain foods though we’re not hungry.
Hormonal Hunger is when we experience PMS and find ourselves
temporarily craving sweets and extra food. It may also result from pregnancy or menopause.
Blood Sugar Hunger is the hunger that comes from not eating enough throughout the day to sustain our blood sugar levels. This can cause us to become ravenous and crave sweets and carbohydrates. It may also
result from excess insulin levels, causing leptin resistance, a hormone that regulates feelings of fullness and satiety.
Addiction Hunger comes from eating a lot of refined sugar and fatty foods and craving them. The more we eat them, the more we crave and want them. This isn’t real
hunger.
Deprivation Hunger results from strict dieting or malnourishment from an eating disorder, fasting, or an illness. The body begins to crave food, usually in the form of carbohydrates, fats and refined sugars. This is a true and deep hunger that will take a while to resolve with good
nutrition and adequate food intake.
Sleep Hunger results from not getting enough sleep. Lack of sleep can cause out of control cravings and hunger.
Stress Hunger results from the release of cortisol and other stress hormones in the body, causing out of control cravings and hunger. We also may become overstimulated and overeat to numb out.
Withdrawal Hunger results when we deprive ourselves of
certain foods or food groups. This results in our craving and then going overboard with them. We may or may not be actually hungry for these foods.
