Everyone knows that hunger is a part of dieting. But what everyone doesn’t know is that hunger does not need to control you. You can beat it.

There are two kinds of hunger: head hunger and true hunger. True hunger is the real thing. It’s when you are feeling hungry because your body is telling you it needs fuel. Your body signals you and lets you know what it needs. You have just lost touch with your inner-self so much that you don’t realize that you truly do need to eat.

There is a theory that if you can learn to listen to your body you will never overeat. The difficulty is being sensitive enough to hear what your body is telling you. You have ignored that voice so long that its cry is weak. If you are stressed or rushed you may not hear it at all. When you are facing a plate full of delicious food, you can be very good at ignoring that voice that says, “OK, now, you have eaten enough, it’s time to stop!”

Sometimes, your body may need some nutrients so badly that you will find yourself craving foods that seem odd. Carol recently related how she craved mustard, nothing else, not mustard with a hot dog or mustard with some cheese, just mustard. It got so bad that she carried a jar around with her, so that she could dip her finger in and scoop some out when she really wanted it. The nutrients in mustard can be found in many other foods. Yet for some reason, her body needed that acidic, pungent delivery system for those nutrients. In a short time the cravings passed and she has never had them return.

Once, when Jim was recuperating from an illness, he got an overwhelming desire for fresh fruit, in particular oranges, a fruit he rarely eats by choice. Jim loves the fruit; he just doesn’t like all the mess of peeling it and separating it into sections. But for about three weeks, he ate several oranges a day. His body needed the unprocessed vitamin C, the refreshing juiciness and the citric acid. One can hypothesize that it was because he was recuperating and his immune system needed a boost.

So, true hunger can be two things, either your body telling you that it needs fuel, or your body telling you that you need certain aspects of a food. But there is that other type of hunger, that craving that keeps bothering you to go eat some of the leftover dessert from dinner. How do you tell the difference, if, like most people, you are not often sensitive to your body’s voice?

Use the saltine test to determine when you are truly hungry and in need of fuel. It is very simple to use. Just ask yourself if you would be satisfied with saltine crackers and water. If the answer is yes, then you are truly hungry. Your body needs fuel.

The hunger that says, “No, I don’t want saltines and water, I want a thick juicy steak, or a piece of chocolate pie, or I just want to eat period, but more tasty foods than saltine and water,” is not true hunger — it is head hunger. It doesn’t originate from your need for fuel; instead it comes either from your head or your heart.

Head hunger is that voice that calls to you from the kitchen and says, “Wouldn’t you like a piece of cake?” Or, “Wouldn’t you like some ice cream?” when it is not time for a meal or snack. Even if it were time for a scheduled snack, these are not foods you would choose. It seems as if the kitchen talks to you. Those foods know your name and what buttons to push to make you crave them.

Head hunger has no rhyme or reason to it. It is not emotional hunger, it is not true hunger and it can be one of the hardest types of hunger to successfully overcome. However, eating your meals and snacks on a simple schedule can reduce it.

You want to eat in such a way that your blood sugar does not drop too low, which causes cravings. You also can keep that hunger at bay by balancing the glucose producing foods we eat so that they fall evenly through out the day. That way you always have a steady stream of glucose and a steady level of insulin in your blood. Low and uneven blood sugar often makes you crave sweet things. Of, course, a small glass of orange juice can raise your blood sugar, but that is not what you crave. You crave those wonderful sugary concoctions of dessert delights.
…to be continued

Tags: control, dieting, head hunger, true hunger

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 4th, 2010 at 11:06 am and is filed under Weight Loss. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.