Members article
By Yvonne Coleman © dementiacareinternational
‘I only eat because I have to, not because I feel hungry,’ is a comment I hear often. For someone who is hungry for every meal, this comment is incomprehensible!
Three key regulators of appetite include:
- Eating habits-such as mealtimes, nibbling, eating fast
- Work-activity levels
- Weight loss
Appetite, like thirst, is a habit. If we ignore hunger signals then the body will stop sending those signals and we become accustomed to not feeling hungry for meals or at any time. However, if we establish a habit of eating at defined times then we will become hungry at those times. The best times to eat are breakfast, morning tea, midday meal, afternoon tea, evening meal and supper.
When we do not eat regularly, we are more likely to nibble. When we nibble, the brain sends a message to the gut saying, ‘Get ready, food is on the way.’ The gut then prepares for an avalanche of food. If instead, only one or two mouthfuls arrive, which the gut disposes of quickly, then it sends a message saying, ‘I want some more food please – preferably sweet,’ and so we nibble more, mostly chocolates and lollies. Nibbling increases our hunger signals and we eat more without ever feeling as though we have eaten. A small bowl of nuts and dried fruit can provide a thousand calories – we can pick at those and yet still feel hungry.
Sometimes we can be so hungry that we eat very quickly and then a couple of hours later we’re hungry again. This occurs because ‘fast eating’ bypasses gut-brain signals. If we take our time to eat – each meal should take about 20 minutes chewing time – then the gut sends a signal to the brain saying:,’Enough has been eaten.’ We feel pleasantly full and don’t feel the need to eat for quite some time. If, however, we eat fast, then the gut does not send the ‘full’ signal and a couple of hours later we feel hungry again.
Appetite is also regulated by work; in this context by physical activity. The harder we work physically, the more likely we are to eat to meet the body’s requirements. However, as we become less active, we often eat more than the body requires. Shearers, labourers, and other people with hard, physically-demanding jobs are more likely to “eat to appetite” than people working in offices.
In the same way that distance is measured in kilometres and miles, and weight is measured in kilograms and pounds, so energy is measured in calories and kilojoules. Work costs energy and the harder we work the more energy we burn. Work encompasses a broad range of activities and includes walking and tremors – a small tremor can cost about a thousand calories a day, whilst a person who walks all day will be burning even more energy.
There can be a point at which a person is unable to eat adequate energy to meet body requirements, typically due to ‘unwellness’ for whatever reason, and so they lose weight. Loss of weight can suppress the appetite and so less is eaten and we lose more weight. This is a difficult spiral to break as so many factors can cause loss of appetite.
For those who eat as desired then a resolution could be to change the habit to eating at regular times!
Everyone can work harder and physically! How hard do you have to work to regulate your appetite?