Hunger!!! Hunger runs the world. Hunger rules the world. Hunger ruins the world. Many types of hunger like Hunger for wealth, hunger for land, hunger for resources, hunger for name, hunger for happiness, hunger for knowledge…. What not. But there is one type which can satisfy everybody. You guessed it right i.e., hunger for food!
What is it being hungry? Is it deprivation of energy? Is it a hollow space in stomach? Is it because of delicious food? Is it a scheduled activity? Or is it just a feeling? What is it?
Hunger is really a feeling. Body when deprived of energy source i.e., glucose in the blood, sends signals to the nervous system. Nervous system creates a feeling like fire in the stomach. And hunger subsides the moment you give enough glucose to the body. Here are some of the facts –
· Hunger has no correlation with the quantity of food one eats. Suppose when hungry, if you eat a couple of sweets or a chocolate bar, you don’t feel hungry for next 3-4 hours. Sweets have high glucose levels which will easily increase the glucose levels in the body and the hunger subsides. Simple math. Cup of rice + water + heat= Bowl full of white rice. How does it matter if you eat a cup of rice or a bowl full of cooked rice when the energy is same in both of them?
· While we eat the food, body prepares itself for digestion with the help of external stimulus. Body decides the amount of gastric juice required, the amount of saliva required, the amount of insulin required. The stimulus is provided by the sense organs like eyes (quantity), smell (composition), and skin (hot/cold), Tongue (taste). Mind is the super processor that processes these stimuli and decides the digestion process in the system. Think what happens when you see/smell a food, saliva start flowing in the mouth.
· Unless the body is prepared to consume the food, it will not get digested. Food in the absence of hunger is like poison. Either you vomit or it comes out undigested. This is one of the causes for acidity, gastric trouble, worms in the intestines etc. Simple yar if your body doesn’t consume the food, other parasites will consume.
· You can get satisfied with the food only if you have hunger. World best recipe cooked by world’s best chef cannot satisfy you if you lack hunger. Contrary to that when you have hunger anything that is available will satisfy you like nectar.
· It is not a scheduled activity. No need to feed when you are not hungry. Because if just turns into fat and piles up in the body. It is of no use.
Many a times, infatuation (मोह) is misinterpreted as hunger. Upon sighting a chocolate or a sweet or a favorite dish people say that I feel like having it. Your stomach is full but you feel like eating it. You will feel saliva flowing in your mouth but the stomach is not prepared for it. This is not hunger it is just infatuation. You are overloading the body with calories which it doesn’t want. Hunger starts from inside not from outside. If you eat only because the tongue wants it, it is pure infatuation. Body suffers because of your temptations. Beware!!!
· If one feels hunger after seeing his/her favorite food, then it is just infatuation and not hunger. I will tell you what happens in these cases. After eating a couple of morsels, the satisfaction levels fall by 50%. Another 4-5 morsels of food, satisfaction is completely down. Another couple of morsels, the food become unpalatable and you will throw it away. This is pure infatuation not hunger.
· When there is no hunger, one doesn’t feel like eating anything. But we have to feed something to survive. So to force something into stomach you will search for the tastiest food and eat it. This is just like covering the face with veil and admiring the beauty. Whom are you cheating by the way, it is yourself.
· The people, who have the habit of eating or munching every now and then, will never have the satisfaction of a full meal. They just fulfil their temporary fascinations. Coffee/tea, softdrinks, juices in between meals will just suppress the hunger and doesn’t satisfy it.
· Today many mothers complain that their kids don’t eat anything. That’s true because they don’t feel that fire. Every one hour if they are eating chocolates, buns, ice creams when will the body get deprived of energy to feel hunger. These junk food supply enough of plain calories (no nutrition), that the body will not feel hungry at al. They often compare their kids to roadside kids. Roadside kids are really blessed. You know why, they have that divine happiness in whatever they eat.
· Many adults say that we eat on time even if we don’t feel hungry. But what is the point eating when there is no hunger. It piles up as fat anyway. Try to get rid of the problem that is causing lack of appetite instead.
· Exercise plays a major role in burning the calories. That means body needs energy, Need of energy mean hunger. Hunger means happiness.
· When the body is sick we don’t feel hungry. That means body doesn’t want to do digestion. It is not in a position to do that strenuous job. Respect the body and don’t eat. For example, when we encounter the gastric pain we don’t feel hungry. Body wants the gas and the waste material to go out. But instead, we feed some more saying body needs something na. Trust me it leads to more gas and more pain.
I heard from someone that “I get fresh baked buns at my home and my kid loves them”. What is fresh and what is love. Satisfaction comes from satisfying the hunger and not the tongue. Real hunger doesn’t look for taste. Real hunger is not time bound. I mean satisfaction from food remains same from beginning to the end.
Eating food is a religious activity. That is why Indian spirituality says satisfying hunger is like devotion of god.
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