I watched a couple of hours of television last night and noticed several commercials for foods that contained a certain amount of calories that would stop one from getting hungry. Highlighting a problem and offering your product as a solution is a tried and tested way of selling something, but since when was hunger a problem? You may know that this really bothers me as hunger is an entirely normal condition, not one that has to be fought against. Hunger is not the enemy when it comes to eating and we should respond to it, yet the signals that tell us we are hungry often get ignored and, for many people, are simply there to be beaten.
When we are hungry, we should eat, but as eating can be so fraught, the signal to eat can be confusing if not alarming for so many people. One of the most effective ways to market any product is to offer it up as a solution to a problem, and food marketing is no exception. It seems obvious that eating food will allay hunger, and so the methods that food manufacturers use to get us to choose their product are complex and varied, but rarely have anything to do with hunger.
But why? What is wrong with being hungry, and why do so many people fear it? It may seem obvious, but I feel that for many people think that if hunger can be conquered, then eating can be controlled and weight can be lost – isn’t that the Holy Grail when it comes to food sales? Food becomes a battleground, and the signal to attack is hunger, so no wonder it’s something to be conquered. One could argue that this is all the wrong way around, as if there were any issues with eating, then responding to the very first sign of hunger would get rid of the feeling which would mean that one needn’t eat. But in practice, people who want to control what they eat, or are on a diet to lose weight, or worried about gaining or regaining weight will often try to muddle through until the next scheduled meal rather then respond to a hunger signal.
If we look at the language of being hungry, the word hunger is most often followed by ‘pangs’, which means ‘ a sharp feeling or spasm of pain or emotional distress’. If this were true, and it is for a large percentage of the population, then we might be able to see why the issue of hunger is a minefield. The signal to refuel is triggered by several things, perhaps the most notable is low blood glucose levels. In the next section I will detailing how to eat so that blood glucose levels can be maintained at an even level, which avoids extreme and true hunger, but we should explore what happens to the average weight-conscious person when they do get that biochemical signal that says ‘feed me’.
That signal to eat may come from a basic physiological need, and whilst our ancestors may have responded appropriately, had there been food available, these days our hunger is clouded by several issues, not least what we do or will weigh if we eat – our emotional life gets in the way and in no small way influences our decision.
One of the problems with hunger is choice; we have so much choice that we don’t know what or how to eat, and hunger is the gateway to all that potential confusion. If you aren’t hungry, then the struggle is minimised, that’s obvious. One of the reasons that strict diets are successful is that they remove choice, and so when you get hungry, you have to eat X or Y, a prescribed food, one that feels ‘safe’. There is no choice, no confusion and no argument. The internal dichotomy ( ‘should I, shouldn’t I?’) simply doesn’t happen and this whole area of conflict is removed. After the diet, or even if you have never been on one, then of course there are unlimited choices, and given how much commercial interests influence what foods we think of, we may eat in a way that doesn’t really serve us that well.
Low calorie food may quash hunger for a short while, but as the glucose the contain lasts for a short while and so the hunger returns and the cycle begins again. Following The Food Doctor way of eating means that hunger is gentle and easily managed, and so the food choices one makes lead to longer lasting energy alongside slow and sustainable weight loss.
To find out more see How Not To Get Fat ( Quadrille Publishing, £9.99 ) or order via www.thefooddoctor.com
