Aasai

Motivation of Hunger and Eating

One of life’s greatest pleasures is eating. Eating food is something everyone needs tosurvive but it is much more than simply survival. Special occasions often involve elaborate feasts and much of the social world revolves around food and eating.Eating involves complex interactions between biologycomplex interactions between biology and cultural influence on cognition.

Common sense dictates that most eating is controlled by hunger and satiety. People eat when they feel hungry and quit eating when they feel full.However, some people eat when  they are not hungry, and others avoid eating even though they are not full.

Factors Influencing human eating behavior

To survive and function properly all living organisms need to take in substances that fuel metabolism.Metabolism is a chemical process by which food is converted into energy. The energy is used to run and repair the body.

When one eats dood, food is digested in the gastro-intestinal tract. And three types of energy are made available to the body to use as fuel;

Lipids (from fats)

Amino acids (proteins)

Glucose (form of sugar from complex carboohydrates)

Biological factors in the regulation of hunger

The biological factors that regulate hunger involve;

Time and taste of food

Neural processes

Internal sensations/ processes

1.Time and Taste of food

Eating is greatly affected by learning. Most people get hungry at around the same time each day. These occurs because people have been classically conditioned to associate eating with regular meal times.We eat not because we have deficient energy stores but because it is time to eat.

The clock indicating meal-time is much like Pavlov’s bell in that it leads to a number of anticipatory responses that motivate eating behaviour and prepare the body for digestion. For instance, an increase of insulin promotes glucose utilization and increases short-term hunger signals.

The sight and smell of tasty foods can have the same effect and even a mere thought of a fresh baked loaf of bread, favorite pizza or dessert may initiate a bodily reaction that induces hunger. One of the main factors that determines eating behavior is flavor; good tasting food motivates eating.

When it comes to flavor, variety really is the spice of life. Research shows that animals presented with a variety of foods tend to eat a great deal more than animals presented with only one type. For instance, rats which normally maintain a steady body weight when eating one type of food eat huge amounts and become obese when presented with a variety of high calorie foods such as chocolate bars, crackers and potato chips.

Human beings show the same effect, eating much more when several types of food are available.

2.Neural processes and 3. Internal Processes

When our stamachs are empty they contract causing both hunger pangs and secretion of chemical messages (impulses) are sent to the brain to serve as a signal to initiate feeding behaviour.

In contrast to human beings, other species are unlikely to become obese. Internal mechanisms regulate not only the quantity of food they take in, but also the kind of food they desire. For example, rats that have been deprived of particular foods seek out alternatives that contain the specific nutrients their diet is lacking and many species given the choice of a wide variety of foods select a well-balanced diet.

The Roots of Obesity

Oversensitivity to external eating cues

Insensitivity to internal hunger cues (satiety)

Higher weight set points

Higher leptin (Protects the body from weight loss.

Fat cells (Increase in number or size of existing fat cells)

Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia, Body Dysmorphic Disorder etc. can also influence eating behavior.