“Let’s head out now, little one.” My son, however, remained unresponsive. The playground sand had reached an ideal texture, and he was engrossed in excavating with his new toy.
As my thoughts returned to my pending tasks, the joyful sounds were abruptly replaced by weeping. My son wasn’t injured, merely distressed. A glance at my watch revealed it was significantly past his usual feeding time, and he was experiencing substantial hunger.
Regardless of our age, a propensity for irritability emerges when our bodies are deprived of adequate sustenance.
Yet, while humans have contended with this sensation throughout history, a specific term to articulate this phenomenon only made its debut in the Oxford English dictionary in 2018. “Hangry: characterized by ill temper or irritability stemming from an empty stomach.”
Perhaps more astonishing is the limited extent of scholarly investigation into the impact of hunger on individuals’ daily emotional states.
The majority of studies examining the interplay between food and mood have concentrated on individuals with metabolic or eating disorders. This focus may stem from a traditional view among many psychologists that regards hunger as a rudimentary physiological imperative.
Consequently, in collaboration with peers from the fields of psychology and mental health, I undertook an inquiry into how diverse individuals react to states of hunger. Our objective was to ascertain if certain people possess a greater capacity for maintaining composure when hunger arises, and the underlying reasons for this. This could potentially offer valuable insights for those of us raising young children.
Unexpected Findings
Within the animal kingdom, hunger is frequently examined for its capacity to act as a potent instigator. For instance, rodents experiencing hunger demonstrate an intense drive, readily engaging in behaviors like pressing levers or traversing substantial obstacles to attain food.
In natural environments, hungry creatures often expand their territorial range, exhibiting a restless demeanor as they actively seek to mitigate the threat posed by depleted energy reserves.
To explore the correlation between bodily energy levels, hunger, and emotional disposition in humans, we equipped 90 healthy adults with continuous glucose monitoring devices over a one-month period.
Glucose, the body’s and brain’s primary energy source, was monitored. These devices, utilized in clinical settings for diabetes management, transmit readings at brief intervals. (Participants had the ability to manually check their glucose readings via a sensor application, and we could observe their access times.)
Furthermore, participants were instructed to complete mood-monitoring check-ins on their smartphones up to twice daily. These assessments included inquiries regarding their perceived hunger or satiety on a scale of 0 to 100, alongside a rating of their current emotional state.
The outcomes were quite revealing. Primarily, individuals reported a decline in mood only when they explicitly acknowledged feeling hungry, rather than solely when their blood glucose levels were low. Secondly, those individuals who exhibited greater precision in discerning their energy levels demonstrated a reduced susceptibility to adverse mood fluctuations.
This suggests the existence of a crucial psychological intermediary stage between a person’s energy status and their mood, a phenomenon that scientists term interoception.
Within the brain, hunger signals are transmitted by neurons located in the hypothalamus, which detect a sustained deficit in energy. The conscious sensation of hunger is subsequently associated with the insula, a region of the cerebral cortex deeply folded within the brain, which also plays a role in processing taste and mediating emotional experiences.
In our recent investigation, participants with a high degree of interoceptive sensitivity experienced fewer mood disturbances. This does not imply an absence of hunger, but rather a greater capacity to maintain emotional equilibrium.
This finding is significant, as abrupt shifts in mood can have cascading repercussions on interpersonal dynamics with family, friends, and colleagues. Such mood swings can precipitate suboptimal decision-making and more impulsive actions, including the selection of high-energy foods that may be detrimental to long-term health.
More broadly, attentive awareness of our body’s needs contributes to mental equanimity, thereby mitigating undue strain on both physical and emotional well-being. Significant deviations from the body’s optimal physiological state can present a sustained risk to our overall health, encompassing both mental and physical aspects.
Unexpectedly Overwhelmed
Young children struggle to accurately interpret the myriad signals emanating from their rapidly developing physiology. They are also highly susceptible to external stimuli, frequently failing to recognize their hunger or thirst cues without external prompting – which can result in an abrupt emotional outburst, akin to my son’s episode at the playground.
Similarly, for a considerable number of adults navigating the demands of our accelerated modern world, replete with constant digital diversions, energy level dips can easily go unnoticed. A straightforward yet effective strategy is to adhere to a consistent meal schedule, as hunger frequently intensifies when meals are postponed or skipped.
Naturally, everyone experiences fluctuations in their energy levels. However, it is indeed feasible to enhance one’s interoceptive accuracy by actively encouraging the internal systems to accord greater attention to energy status. Furthermore, engagement in exercise and physical activity can refine one’s perception of hunger and bolster energy metabolism.
For the most part, our emotional states are only subtly influenced by hunger, amidst a multitude of other contributing variables.
Nevertheless, a key takeaway from my experience in the playground is the necessity of proactively addressing my son’s nutritional requirements before they manifest overtly. It is plausible that we all need to cultivate a heightened awareness of the potential for experiencing ‘hangry’ episodes.
