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The true and false feeling of hunger in the stomach

Alexey Portnov, medical expert
Last reviewed: 01.06.2018

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The first scientist, interested in the mechanism of the appearance of hunger in the stomach, was the famous physiologist IP Pavlov.

He conducted a series of experiments on dogs and determined that the brain of a living being has a special food site responsible for the appearance of a feeling of hunger and satiety. If you send incentives to the zone that determines the feeling of hunger, then this feeling increases, but if this zone is damaged, then the hunger disappears.

The satiety zone functions with the direct opposite: when giving stimuli to this zone the body feels that it is full, but if the zone is damaged, an uncontrollable feeling of hunger occurs.

The scientist in practice has found out that both these zones interact, mutually opposing each other: the feeling of satiety depresses the feeling of hunger, and vice versa.

But what exactly makes the brain signal about feelings of hunger or satiety?

The first proven assumption about the causes of hunger was the experience of the same scholar Pavlov. He created a false filling of the stomach in the experimental animal: as a result, his sense of hunger completely disappeared. From this experiment, it was concluded that the feeling of hunger in the stomach is due to its emptiness and volume reduction, and with a full stomach signals about hunger do not come.

However, later this theory was supplemented, as not always corresponding to reality. When a hungry dog was given a blood transfusion from a well-fed dog, the first one had a feeling of fullness. At the same time, the dog's stomach remained empty.

Hence it was concluded that this sign is in direct dependence not only on the fullness of the stomach, but also on the level of glucose and nutrients in the blood.

False feeling of hunger

It can appear in many situations, but it must be recognized and distinguished from the true hunger in time. Such a feeling of hunger can arise for several reasons:

alcohol consumption. Even in small doses, alcohol contributes to an increase in appetite, so it has been experimentally proved that after eating it, a person inevitably eats more food;
idleness, boredom. Often the desire to eat comes from doing nothing, or during an idle watching TV. In this case, food is a way to "occupy yourself with something" at the same time and enjoy it;
lack of sleep and chronic fatigue. Scientists have proved that lack of sleep and lack of proper rest disturbs the "hunger-sense of satiation" regime in the body, so we start eating when we do not really want it, and stop controlling the feeling of satiety. This process, fortunately, is reversible: the stabilization of sleep and rest restores our diet;
the presence in the fridge of anything tasty, colorful showcases with pastries, which we meet on the way - all this makes us eat even when we do not want it. At the sight of an appetizing cake, it may seem that you just did not have it right now. This state is also provoked by the appearance of a false sense of hunger;
feeling of hunger "for the company." Even if you recently dined, but friends invited you to a restaurant, you, watching how they eat, also involuntarily reach for a tasty morsel. This is a manifestation of visual appetite, which is one of the provoking factors of this feature;
strict diets. Observance of too strict and limited diets exhausts the body, as a result of which he begins to demand food "in reserve", in the case of another restriction or starvation. Hence - frequent "failures" and night "raids" on the refrigerator.

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