Hedonic Hunger: Food for Fuel versus Food for Fun. Yahoo article featuring Dr. Jennifer Warren, M.D.

When we feel hungry, how do we know if we really need to eat?  Yahoo News writer Jenna Birch contacted me with that interesting question.  There are actually two primary types of hunger - homeostatic hunger (when we need food as "fuel") and hedonic hunger (when we want food for "fun").  We spent several days emailing back and forth, and talking on the phone.  She also interviewed Dr. Michelle May.  Jenna's complete article is here:  http://yahoohealthmag.tumblr.com/post/124088688997/how-to-read-your-hunger-cues-and-control-your-urge

Excerpts from the article are below, along with new additional commentary added in bold.  

How to Read Your Hunger Cues and Control Your Urge to Eat

By Jenna Birch

Understanding Hunger:  the feeling of hunger is actually even more nuanced than most realize. Researchers are now focusing on two main kinds of hunger, according to Obesity Medicine specialist Jennifer Warren, MD, Medical Director at Physicians Healthy Weight Center.

“These two types are homeostatic hunger and hedonic hunger,” Warren tells Yahoo Health. (Food as fuel vs food as fun.)  “You can think of one as physical hunger, ‘stomach hunger’ or the need for calories. The other is emotional hunger, ‘head hunger,’ or the urge to eat food as a reward.”  (One patient calls it “cookie hunger”, controlled by the “cookie center” in the brain.  Pretty accurate, really!)

Warren says research is finally figuring out the biological basis for both. And both types of hunger have helped keep humans alive for, well, as long as we’ve been around.

Homeostatic hunger deals with your drive to fill basic calorie needs, or as Warren puts it, your body’s way of telling you that you need food as fuel. “This is the need for calories and nutrients, which help keep the body in a balanced – or homeostatic – state of health,” she explains. “We recognize this type of hunger when our stomach is grumbling and feels empty, when we feel lightheaded, or spacey.” Your blood sugar is dropping, and you know it.

In the case of homeostatic hunger, you’re famished, and you’re not very picky about food choices. “Any food looks good, even food we wouldn’t normally consider that tasty,” Warren says.

On the flipside, there’s hedonic hunger, which Warren describes as our body’s need for food as fun. “This hunger originates in the hypothalamus, otherwise known as the brain’s reward center,” Warren says. “With that, hedonic hunger tends to push us toward ‘hyperpalatable’ foods – the sweet, starchy, creamy or fatty stuff.”  (This food can actually have an “addictive” effect in some people, and our cravings can worsen when we are under stress, exhausted, or otherwise not having our basic life needs met.)

Back in our ancestors’ day, Warren says that scientists think hedonic hunger arose out of a need for the highly-palatable foods of old, like sweet berries for key antioxidants and fatty foods to instantly meet caloric needs. But today? This hunger can be problematic for a very specific reason: “We have an endless supplie of delicious, high-calorie foods,” says Warren. “It can overwhelm us, turn hedonic hunger into a feedback loop – and we can end up eating more than is really healthy.”

While fighting off hedonic hunger might seem like a battle of willpower, it runs deeper than that. “Multiple chemical signals in the brain can increase this drive to eat for pleasure, so there is a real, biological basis for hedonic hunger,” Warren says. “That rush of ‘feel good’ neurochemicals after eating these foods can be addictive.

Controlling Hunger:  Controlling hedonic hunger starts by controlling homeostatic hunger, says Warren. If you don’t, your whole hunger system will start getting out of whack. “If someone is lacking in calories or nutrition, that can light the fire of hedonic hunger and set it ablaze,” she explains.  Suddenly, everything starts to look good, and you reach for whatever’s most readily available – chips, cookies, Twinkies, whatever else you probably shouldn’t be eating.

So, control your basic nutritional needs first with three balanced meals, never going more than three to four hours without eating. “At the core, we control homeostatic hunger by eating healthful, balanced snacks with protein on a regular schedule throughout the day, meeting our need for nutrition without going too long without it,” Warren says.

And keep in mind, hedonic hunger itself isn’t bad hunger. You should feel free to indulge that smartly and occasionally, says Warren. “Enjoying food is part of a healthy, fulfilling life,” she says. “We just have trouble if our hedonic hunger is too high, because pleasure-driven hunger isn’t pushing us to binge on veggies. It pushes us toward calorie-dense, high-fat and high-glycemic carbs.”

So start by controlling your homeostatic hunger. Then, if that’s not enough, you have to address other sources of “hunger” or start paying closer attention to what your body’s cues are telling you about need fulfillment.  (If you are using tasty food to meet emotional or other needs, to ‘self-medicate’ anxiety, depression, winter blues, etc, you may need help to find healthier ways to address these issues.  Some people may unconsciously use carbohydrates to raise serotonin levels, to calm themselves, since carbohydrates open the blood-brain barrier to a rush of the amino acid tryptophan, which can temporarily sedate us...this can happen with a stuffing and turkey dinner, for example.  While an occasional small dose of calming carbs is not a bad thing, a dose which is too frequent or too large, or is used as a substitute for healthy coping strategies, is not a good thing!  I will write a separate blog about healthy ways to improve serotonin, such as proper eating patterns, exercise, sunlight, sleep ‘hygiene’, counseling and calming behavioral techniques, and more.)  

Reading Your Body’s Hunger Cues and Countering Cravings:  Sometimes hunger is confusing. To eat without overdoing it, you have to address the right dietary needs at the right time, separate the difference between needing food (for fuel) and simply wanting it (for fun),  and realize that you can hunger for something that’s not food at all.  (Other needs can also make us think we are hungry)...Thirst, anxiety, boredom, fatigue, lack of sleep and painful situations are all reasons you may want to eat, but eating won’t fill that hole.

(How do we figure it out?)  

Track your intake:  If you’re craving uncontrollably, make sure you’re eating normally. This should equate to a meal or snack roughly every three to four hours, says Warren, making sure you’ve eaten a good balance of protein and carbohydrates, meeting your calorie needs and hydrating to make sure you are not simply thirsty. “If you are not sure about your nutritional needs, journal for a few days with one of the great free apps, such as MyFitnessPal,” says Warren. “Maybe run it by a dietician or Obesity Medicine specialist. Once you know you are getting your nutritional needs met, for both calories and macronutrients, if you are feeling ‘hunger,’ it’s likely another need you’re trying to fill with food.”

Honor your introvert needs.

Warren says one of the most common reasons people overeat for pleasure is because they aren’t taking enough time for themselves, and food then becomes the reprieve. “We need to honor that need to be alone and recharge, and if this need goes unmet, we often feel an increased drive to eat for pleasure to counter that anxiety,” says Warren, who says to take a timeout from social obligations to “honor our inner introvert” – so you don’t overeat at every party or cookout (or overeat at night to “de-stress” after a long day of dealing with other people!)  

Avoid a state of decision fatigue.

Another reason we overeat? We’re tired. So tired, in fact, that we enter a state of “decision fatigue,” says Warren. “It’s the end of a busy day, we’re beat, and we have very limited energy left to make healthy food choices. Instead, we reach for what’s quick, tasty and fun.” This is where pre-planning comes into play. Put a healthy dinner in the crockpot before work. Make up measured bags of healthy trail mix as a snack. Always have cut-up raw veggie and fruits on hand to grab n’ go. Be smart when you’re not too tired to default to bad decisions.

Seek help.

Sometimes, out-of-control cravings may seriously be beyond your control. “Inherited genes may lead to excessive hedonic hunger, turned on during phases of life,” says Warren. “It could be the result of hormone changes, pregnancy, medical conditions, medications, poor sleep, poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, and so on. All may amp up hedonic hunger, and it can be tough to bring the ‘fire’ back down to a normal range.” Therapy, medication and lifestyle changes all may help, so talk to your doctor if you can’t seem to calm your cravings and eating. If you would like help setting up your own personal environment so it is "safe for healthy living" - give us a call any time! Our goals are to help people establish simple, realistic, healthful lifestyles which make it easier to make healthy choices every day. Read more about our program: healthyweightcenter.com Call any time: (603) 379-6500.

***Update January 2017: we are offering a New Year special free first visit for new patients who sign up for our Jump Start Program. Call now to reserve your time. Happy New Year!