Hunger

I can attest to that @Grateful - it really is a stabbing/twisting pain & can actually kill your appetite dead. Very unpleasant!

I think that very low carbing and intermittent fasting has taught me the difference between craving, feeling a vague need/desire to eat and proper hunger. Mostly what I previously identified as hunger proves to be a passing sensation. I often find I get less hungry on days when I’m eating one meal a day than on days when I eat more than once.

Agree with @Goonergal. I tend to fast three days a week, skip lunch Monday, Wednesday and Friday, easy, I am at work and I don't take any food in with me. Don't ever actually feel hunger. Tuesday and Thursday I work 14:00 to 22:00, so am at home for lunch.... availability and conditioning make it harder not to eat something, esp when preparing lunch for son....
then on the other side...
I've never feel full.... even though I may have packed away some size of fish curry on a Thursday night.

Interesting question! We're certainly fortunate that most of us don't have to experience real hunger. We're surrounded by food, and special offers, yet some (or too many) people are relying on food banks or other charity. It's certainly something I've been forced to look at now I have to cut/watch the carbs. It's also something where we're quite vulnerable as a nation. So UK would struggle to be self-sufficient in food. Any catastrophic breakdown in transportation or power would knock out most of our supermarkets and force a pretty drastic change in diets. So something like another Carrington event.

But I think we've certainly got lazy, but there's also some romanticising about the past. So the Primordial.. I mean Paleo diet attempts some ancestor worship. So 'basic' foods from Neolithic times, yet excludes some foods like legumes and dairy. The Aurochs were around in Europe at the time, so no real historic reason to exclude those. Nor most legumes, depending on what part of the world you want to pretend you're in.. So there's no real reason to exclude coffee either. But there would have been a lot more energy expenditure being a hunter/gather foraging for nuts, berries, seeds, game etc than prowling supermarket aisles looking for a BOGOF of beer. Or worse, ordering online for home delivery.. Click on the picture of beefburgers before it gets away.. Increasing obesity in the developed West suggests we're eating too much though, or too much of the wrong things.

I agree totally. most people are over fed and over fed with the wrong foods. For those of us that are lucky that keto works for us and kills our appetites and cravings., we know we are fueling our bodies correctly. I could quite easily do a fat fast. But would have no idea how to take insulin for just fat haha. I could do without all carbs ( except avo as it balances my bg) and without protein for a bit but if there’s not enough fat, I’d be starving. I eat an 80% fat diet but it’s more normal portions vs gobbling. It just makes up a higher percentage of my diet. Some protein, some avo, some nuts, some oil or mayo. Nothing fried and no fatty meats.

hankjam said:

I've never feel full.... even though I may have packed away some size of fish curry on a Thursday night.

Click to expand...

Probably because you are no longer feeling bloated, which is what happens after too many carbs. There is a difference between being full and feeling bloated that get mixed up in our subconscious..... Just a thought....

Grateful said:

To really "know" hunger would, I suppose, entail doing something like the Newcastle Diet or doing some extreme fasting?

Click to expand...

Personally I didn't feel that hungry while cutting my calorie intake to around 800 calories. That is partially down to drinking a lot of water and also trying very hard not to think about food all the time. I should mention that by removing sources of protein from my diet you can eat a lot of vegetables for 800 calories, so that's probably got a lot to do with it.

I've recently watched Fat, Sick and nearly dead, a film about an Australian, Joe Cross (I think) who, at 40 and 300 lbs went on a Juice diet for 60 days, so a lot of veg, but juiced. A film crew followed his journey, a journey in 2 ways because he travelled round the U.S. talking to people about weight, diet etc. I don't remember him mentioning hunger, but then 60 days on a juice diet would be next to impossible if he was hungry all the time. I'll have to read his book.

DavidGrahamJones said:

Personally I didn't feel that hungry while cutting my calorie intake to around 800 calories. That is partially down to drinking a lot of water and also trying very hard not to think about food all the time. I should mention that by removing sources of protein from my diet you can eat a lot of vegetables for 800 calories, so that's probably got a lot to do with it.

I've recently watched Fat, Sick and nearly dead, a film about an Australian, Joe Cross (I think) who, at 40 and 300 lbs went on a Juice diet for 60 days, so a lot of veg, but juiced. A film crew followed his journey, a journey in 2 ways because he travelled round the U.S. talking to people about weight, diet etc. I don't remember him mentioning hunger, but then 60 days on a juice diet would be next to impossible if he was hungry all the time. I'll have to read his book.

Click to expand...

I wonder how that would pan out for a diabetic. Seems too fast for digestion causing higher bs?

Kristin251 said:

I wonder how that would pan out for a diabetic.

Click to expand...

I seem to remember that he had been diagnosed as pre-diabetic, but would need to check it out. He certainly has something to say about juicing for diabetics.

https://www.rebootwithjoe.com/rebooting-and-juicing-with-diabetes/

Kristin251 said:

Seems too fast for digestion causing higher bs?

Click to expand...

I'm probably being thick. Are you saying that fast digestion (shorter intestinal transit times?) can cause higher BG? I'm not advocating the 60 day reboot, although tempted because I know how effective just eating vegetables was on my BG. Roast or Juiced, who knows? I did note that Joe Cross does suggest more veg and less fruit.

I recall reading somewhere, that most of us in the Western world are not hungry but dehydrated and we get the signals confused 98% of the time. For diabetics, I seem to recall hearing a doctor say that most T1 and T2 are severely dehydrated due to the condition also. It is an interesting point though. Initially I had to learn how to rehydrate myself properly by drinking a 5 ounce glass every half hour - for the waking day rather than guzzling water down when I remembered. It seems a lot but its one of the ways of ensuring you don't have to run to the loo every 5 minutes, and that way you are actually replenishing the water loss that your body experiences on a day to day basis.

So if the word "hungry" is no longer PC then what do we say when we would like some food?

Well I would go with Feed Me I'm Famished.

DavidGrahamJones said:

I seem to remember that he had been diagnosed as pre-diabetic, but would need to check it out. He certainly has something to say about juicing for diabetics.

https://www.rebootwithjoe.com/rebooting-and-juicing-with-diabetes/



I'm probably being thick. Are you saying that fast digestion (shorter intestinal transit times?) can cause higher BG? I'm not advocating the 60 day reboot, although tempted because I know how effective just eating vegetables was on my BG. Roast or Juiced, who knows? I did note that Joe Cross does suggest more veg and less fruit.

Click to expand...

Juicing makes the nutrients, including the carbohydrates, rapidly available by breaking down the cell walls and mixing up the cell contents.

If you eat the un-juiced fruit and vegetables then your digestive system has to break down the cell walls which takes time. So you can take something rated as medium to low GI and turn it into high GI, which is more prone to give you a high spike in BG.

This is one reason that fruit juices are not recommended for T2s because of the rapid sugar hot. Drinking apple juice is a lot more rapid than chewing a crunchy apple. Not that apples are particularly recommended, either.

Mr_Pot said:

So if the word "hungry" is no longer PC then what do we say when we would like some food?

Click to expand...

I require gustatory appeasement, facilitated by masticated victuals passing into one's upper abdomen?

A bit verbose I think by the time I'd have said that I would have fainted from a non PC condition.

Grateful said:

I think the word is fine!!!! I could have phrased it better by saying the word has two rather different meanings.....

Click to expand...

Rather than "hungry", I think the word that is more misused is "starving". It should mean that you are in danger of dying not that you have just come home from school and fancy a bag of crisps.

Mr_Pot said:

So if the word "hungry" is no longer PC then what do we say when we would like some food?

Click to expand...

I’m peckish?! Doesn’t sound so urgent!

My old dad used to come in from a hard day at the boozer and say wheres my tea my stomach thinks my throat's been cut.

My dear old mum would then say it's in the bin.