Picture your brain (and central nervous system) as the computer board that manages the rest of your body, including your organs. So, without your brain, there wouldn’t be any kind of feedback. As an example, you’re about to cook a meal and turn on the stove. You reach into the fridge to get some ingredients that you need, while the stove heats up. Then, you forget that it’s on and confidently place your hand on the hot stove. A signal is sent to your brain so it can “translate” it. The brain detects it as a harmful act. It sends a signal back in the form of pain, meaning “stop that, you’re going to cause damage.” As a result, your hand immediately removes itself from the hot stove. This seems like a long process for such a simple act, but that is the case with every single act that you do. Your body does every move, not because of the body itself wanting to do it, but because the brain tells it to do it.

What is this have to do with hunger? Well, hunger is a response signal from the brain. Just like the brain responded to the hot stove in order to survive by not causing further damage, the brain responds to lack of nutrients when there are not enough. There’s an array of nutrients that your body needs in order to be satisfied (refined wheat flour is not one of them). Every time there is a shortage in any of them, the brain signals other parts of the body and, as a result, you get hungry. Today’s grocery stores have so many options to choose from. Unfortunately, many are not healthy. Meaning, they are not rich in nutrients that your body requires in order for your brain to be satisfied. This is one reason why you’re still hungry after eating that bag of chips you bought at the gas station. As opposed to eating a cup of oatmeal with the same amount of calories as the bag of chips. They might have the same amount of calories, but they do not have the same amount of nutrients, which is the only thing your brain cares about.

You probably heard of the term “empty calories.” This is what they mean by empty. Your brain thinks in terms of the required nutrients, not the required calories. If the calories you’re eating do not have many nutrients, then they are empty or, more accurately, low dense calories. Every time you eat that meal low in nutrients, your brain says, “this is not enough nutrients. Keep feeding me. I’ll just put these extra calories in the form of fat cells until I am satisfied with the amount of nutrients.”

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) (2021), the guidelines for daily calorie intake for a 6-foot, 190-pound, 30-year-old male, is 3,000 calories. This does not mean that 3,000 calories will make your hunger go away. Like I said, you being hungry is not dependent on the calorie intake. It is dependent on the nutrient intake.

So, next time you want to get full faster, go for the option that is rich in nutrients so your brain is satisfied and does not ask for more food. You might be asking, so, which nutrients should I look for when buying groceries? That is a topic for another post soon-to-be posted. Stay tuned.

U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2021). MyPlate Plan. Retrieved from https://www.myplate.gov/myplate-plan.