As the digital clock on my computer screen approaches 12pm, I start to wonder when would be an acceptable time to crack into the Tupperware. It’s not so much hunger that drives me away from my inbox and towards my lunchbox, but rather habit, and, dare I say, pursuit of pleasure. If only for five minutes. My lunch rarely survives that long.
Come 3pm and the vending machine beguiles like a siren. And yet I haven’t felt real hunger in years. Not the stomach-churning kind that starts as a faint rumble, like thunder in a distant valley, and builds to a bolt of painful lightning.
“I forgot to eat” is a phrase that has never passed my lips. I’m not alone. We are legion, those who never wait for the cue of a hunger pang, and instead rely on boredom, habit and desire for pleasure to fill our stomachs.
Hunger may be the body’s signal that you need to eat, but if you’ve ever compulsively finished a packet of biscuits or a box of chocolates, you will know that the drive to eat is not simply about staving off starvation.
If we understand what makes us eat, can we master our appetite? Below, I talk to the experts to find out.
Decoding your hunger
There are a number of hormones that help to drive hunger. The best-known is ghrelin, a hormone that is largely produced in the stomach.
Ghrelin activates receptors in the hypothalamus, the part of our brain involved with hunger. When levels of the hormone rise, that tells your brain that you are hungry and it is time to eat. It signals the release of stomach acids to digest food. But if food is not consumed, the stomach acids begin to attack the lining of the stomach, causing hunger pains.
“As well as encouraging you to eat more, ghrelin also encourages your body to store the extra calories you have eaten as fat,” explains Dr Clare Bailey, the co-founder, with her husband Dr Michael Mosley, of thefast800.com weight-loss programme.
Controlling the release of ghrelin can help to keep our appetite and weight in order. There are a number of factors that may affect the production of ghrelin: your environment, the quantity and quality of the food you eat, the quality of your sleep, whether you are stressed or anxious, and finally, your brain’s desire for a pleasant eating experience.
Junk hunger
Our relationship with food can be complex. One day we have committed to a healthy-eating regime and the next we are scoffing a whole packet of jaffa cakes.
“There are many things that have an impact on our appetite and desire for food, with one being that we are simply hungry, but many others come down to what we eat, why we eat and even what our brain isn’t getting,” says nutritionist and author Pauline Cox.
For many people, sugar is like a bad relationship we just keep going back to. We know it’s not good for us, but we just can’t seem to stay away. Why is it that sugar can have such a hold over us?
Ghrelin interacts with insulin, the hormone that regulates blood sugar. Falling levels of insulin cause ghrelin (and therefore hunger) levels to rise.
Junk food contains high amounts of sugar and simple carbohydrates, which push your blood sugars up, causing your pancreas to release insulin, which then brings your blood sugars down. Ghrelin then increases. And so, even though you ate a large and tasty meal half an hour before, the brain has you licking your lips at the thought of food again.
Hunger wants, not needs
It’s not just ghrelin production that sugary foods disrupt, but the release of a potent neurotransmitter, or brain hormone, called dopamine.
“As humans, we are motivated by our potent brain chemistry to undertake certain behaviours that ensure our survival. Activities such as sex and eating stimulate the release of dopamine,” says Cox. “If something is pleasurable, the brain releases dopamine to motivate us to keep performing that same activity.”
When we eat high-sugar foods, our dopamine levels spike, quickly followed by a drop, driving us to eat more sugar to maintain the high.
Dopamine levels are also affected by low oestrogen, and low levels of vitamin D, B6 and folate - and high levels of stress and inflammation - can lead to naturally low levels of dopamine. “Dopamine-seeking behaviours, such as compulsive eating, may be driven by these low levels of dopamine.”
Life, stress and appetite
Life can snowball sometimes, and when it does, it has consequences for our appetite. Falling blood sugars and dopamine play a role, but often the reason we eat is because we feel bored, anxious or just tired.
Research has shown that after a bad night’s sleep, people typically eat 350 calories more than normal the following day, mainly high-sugar foods such as pastries or biscuits.
It’s not true for everyone. “When I’m feeling stressed, I actually stop feeling hungry and need to remind myself to eat, while my husband, Michael, starts opening all the cupboards, hunting for a sugary snack,” Bailey says. “It is easy to mistake feeling stressed with feeling hungry, and often if you can distract yourself, those feelings that you must eat will pass.”
Breaking free of habit
We have established that hunger comes in many forms. Most of us are familiar with the urge to fill up with comfort food in times of stress, whether we are hungry or not. But why does a bad break-up cause some people to starve and others to comfort eat?
“Our habits and patterns from childhood colour our expectations,” Bailey says. “So, whether we were expected as a child to wait until a main meal, learning to be comfortable with feeling a bit hungry at times; or, in contrast, you were more inclined to snacking, rarely experiencing hunger at all, and finding it particularly uncomfortable when you do.
“There is also a strong emotional and psychological aspect colouring how hunger makes you feel and whether you can tolerate it for short periods.”
Distraction can help to fill the gap. And learning to “ride the wave” can help as the craving or urge to eat rises and then dissipates – allowing the hunger to subside for a while.
However, eating a sweet and starchy diet is likely to leave you feeling constantly hungry, as sugar spikes turn to sugar crashes, frequently firing up your hunger hormones.
“I am one of those annoying people who stays slim without really trying,” Bailey admits. “I don’t have mad hunger cravings, probably because I don’t have a sweet tooth and prefer savoury foods. I suspect this is partly upbringing, partly genetic. Some people are just naturally hungrier than others.
“I am a greyhound, while Michael is a labrador. He has a sweet tooth and finds it hard to resist the temptation of chocolate or biscuits, which is why we tend not to have them in the house, and if we do, I hide them.”
Hello, new hunger habits
There are a number of strategies you can adapt to reduce cravings and keep your hunger at bay.
“One of the main drivers of hunger is protein, so I usually have a savoury, filling, high-protein breakfast, such as scrambled eggs, or omelette, or full-fat yoghurt with berries and nuts,” says Dr Bailey. “I find it keeps me feeling satisfied through to lunchtime and fends off those hunger hormones.”
Getting enough protein each day is key. “Both Michael and I base our meals on a healthy Mediterranean-style diet, with lots of veg, fruit, oily fish, and some dairy and meat, as well as lentils, beans, seeds and nuts – all of which will help keep hunger at bay.”
Becoming the master of your own appetite is about avoiding those sugary foods that set you on a rollercoaster to a blood-sugar crash, which triggers a mad desire to eat. Many ultra-processed foods, such as crisps and biscuits, are high in carbs and fat, which makes them incredibly moreish, so you just keep eating.
“I would strongly recommend you drink a large glass of water with every meal, as there is lots of evidence that this helps suppress hunger. We keep a big jug in the fridge, and squirt in lemon juice to make it more interesting.”
Getting enough sleep is also crucial if you want to control hunger, as lack of sleep makes us crave junk food. And since stress is a big driver of hunger, try some simple breathing exercises, such as 4-2-4, where you breathe in to a count of four, hold for two, and out for four.
Embrace your hunger – fast!
One of the things that surprises people when they follow the Very Fast 800 approach (the short-term, rapid weight-loss phase with restricted calories), Bailey says, is that despite eating fewer than 1000 calories a day, they soon stop feeling hungry.
“This is partly because your stomach shrinks, but also because when you are on a low-carb diet with restricted calories, your body soon starts running on ketones [which are produced from your fat stores], rather than glucose. Those ketones help suppress the release of ghrelin.”
Another benefit of allowing yourself to build up a bit of hunger, she adds, is that “You soon learn that it does not just grow and grow, but is more like the tide – it comes and goes.
“Often, what we think is hunger is just a habit: ‘It is 4pm, so it must be time for tea and toast.’”
At a cellular level, one of the benefits of going a bit longer than usual without food in your system (ie fasting) is that it switches on a repair mechanism called autophagy.
“This literally means ‘self-eat’, and it is a bit like spring cleaning,” explains Bailey. During autophagy, your body breaks down and gets rid of junky old cells, allowing space for new, healthier cells to take their place.
Intermittent fasting, which Dr Mosley helped to popularise, includes a type of fasting called time-restricted eating. The idea is that you limit the hours within which you eat. You might, for example, decide to stop eating by 8pm and not eat again till 10am. That is known as 14:10, because you are going 14 hours, overnight, without eating.
“This is the best-researched form of time-restricted eating, and one of the benefits seems to be that it gives your gut a rest from the hard work of digesting and processing food. A bit like closing down a motorway overnight, which allows it to be patched up and repaired.”
Good luck – but beware the hidden sugars
Even with the best of intentions, the modern food world is paved with sugary pitfalls. On a cellular level, we know our bodies love the sweet stuff.
“This is why food companies spend a great deal of money on science creating the perfect formula to stimulate our taste buds, but also the subconscious chit-chat between the gut and the brain,” says Cox.
There are hidden sugars in all processed food: “Pasta sauce, breads, crisps – it’s not an accident. Sweet flavours are concealed with salt.”
If you are genuinely intent on restarting your appetite, then cooking from scratch is the only way to control your true sugar intake.
Remember, says Cox: “Your sugar-hungry brain is hardwired to encourage you to seek and consume sugar whenever you get the chance.”
Five ways to help regulate your hunger
By Pauline Cox
1. Foods that cause a sharp rise in blood sugars and dopamine make them far more addictive. Managing our blood-sugar spikes can help to reduce the impact sugar has on our body, which is key for better brain function and appetite regulation.
2. Eating fibre alongside foods with a higher glycaemic index (sugar load) will lower the impact on our blood sugars. A large salad with your pizza reduces the blood-sugar spike from the pizza. Eating your dessert immediately after a fibre-packed lunch will lower the blood-sugar impact of the dessert.
3. Sugar-sensing neuropod cells in the gut also respond to essential fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids supplementation can release dopamine via the neuropods in the gut, helping to reduce sugar cravings. This can be achieved by the EPA fatty acids in oily fish, such as salmon and sardines, fish oil supplements, or for vegans and vegetarians, via a plant-based source called ahiflower. This is a sustainable oilseed grown in the UK and is a superb source of plant-based omega-3 fatty acids that convert naturally to EPA and DHA, found in a supplement form called Regenerative Omegas.
4. Increasing amino-acid intake can also reduce cravings through stimulating dopamine production via protein such as fish, chicken, eggs and cheese.
5. The quality and length of our sleep has an impact on sugar cravings. An increase of 15 per cent in our hunger hormone and a reduction of 15 per cent in our satiety hormone is seen with poor sleep. Aim for seven hours of good-quality sleep.