How to avoid nervous hunger

La nervous hunger (o emotional hunger) manifests itself with an urgent need to eat, even without physical hunger, often just to manage emotions such as stress, boredom, anxiety, sadness or anger. A great waste, and not only of food, but above all of health, as, among the consequences, it can lead to being overweight if not toobesity. 

Cause

Emotional hunger is one of those habits we can renounce if we just put in the effort. Before using willpower, we need to be able to identify the causes of our emotional hunger. These could be:

• Anger. Biting and swallowing food, especially crunchy food, evokes a sense of primitive aggression. The relief is linked to a mechanical process: the movement of the jaws, which, through biting and crunching, acts as a calming agent.
• Anxiety. It induces a desire for fatty foods and sweets, those that carry significant doses of SerotoninFrom chocolate to bananas, these are foods that can contribute to a state of well-being and pleasure. Often, this is only temporary.
• The stress. Several studies have shown that stress is associated with an unbalanced, unhealthy, and often out-of-hours diet. This type of eating stems from nervous hunger.
• Boredom. The lack of goals and activity leads to eating small amounts of food, but continuously. This is the typical ritual of emotional eating.

Symptoms and differences from physical hunger

Nervous hunger can be recognized by some symptoms:

• It occurs at any time of the day and even during the night, and comes suddenly.
• Do you always want to open the refrigerator, and it's one of the first things we do when we get home.
• Attacks can also occur a few minutes after eating.
• The weight is out of control and it becomes almost impossible to maintain that shape.
• You eat too quickly and voraciously.
• You are often nervous and in a bad mood.

Physical hunger, unlike emotional hunger, does not arrive suddenly, but gradually; it involves any type of food (and not specifically sweets and snacks); and at a certain point you naturally feel full (with emotional hunger the feeling of satiety may never arrive).

How to keep nervous hunger at bay

If hunger is nervous in nature, we must act precisely on our nerves to keep it at bay and prevent it from causing harm. Some easy-to-implement countermeasures may be sufficient, such as these:

• To relax calmly with a scented bath
• To stroll and walk in the open air
• Listening to music we like, better if classic
• Do something useful and absorbent at home: cooking, embroidering, knit, make small DIY repairs

Other tricks to stave off hunger concern the details of our meal, that is, how we organized it. For example:

• A large plate encourages you to eat a larger quantity, while a small plate fills you up with less and your calorie intake will also be significantly lower. Furthermore, the small but full plate is an effective trick which deceives the eye and helps the mind to reach the feeling of satiety sooner.
• Drink plenty of water, herbal teas, and juices. They certainly help control cravings.
• There is no need to punish ourselves: if there are foods that we like, without becoming addicted to them, we can
  eat them, perhaps trying to reduce them gradually.
• Chewing slowly: a way to appreciate food, and separate the natural component
  of nutrition from the “nervous” one.

How to feel full

Sometimes it's enough to drink plenty of water throughout the day, or discover the pleasure, for example, at snack time (late morning or afternoon), of a yogurt with pomegranate seeds or soybeans. Furthermore, it's not difficult, as part of a healthy lifestyle, to be careful not to remain fast for too long, arriving home in the evening with a huge and understandable desire for food. pleasure of satiety It's a simple and easy path, but it crosses the chasms of waste, as eating too much automatically translates into a waste, not so much of money, but above all of health. You gain too much weight, you feel weak and heavy, you risk various diseases, you waste time and money, with the attendant consequences. Bad mood, to follow very, in some cases too, tiring diets.

When you really feel full after eatingEveryone can answer this question differently, and for some there is only one answer: never. Satiety, in fact, is not a standard sensation, but it has a mechanism that reports directly to the brain. The feeling of satiety, which makes us want to eat more or less, is a neurological response that comes from the hypothalamus. Therefore, we can control and calibrate it correctly; it's not mechanical, and it's not independent of our will or our diet.

The satiety index

There is even a satiety index, measured for each type of food. And here's an important discovery we need to know: it's not true that fattier foods, from meat to butter-based menus, are more filling and suppress appetite. On the contrary, there are very natural foods that have high satiety scores. For example, carrots have a satiety score of 3,8; oranges 3,5; and grilled fish 3,4. So there are several fresh, healthy foods that fill our stomachs and keep us from craving more.

A second factor in feeling full concerns the quantity of dishes. An ancient proverb recommends us to eat everything, but in moderation. Precisely to feel satiated in the right way. But unfortunately, it doesn't always work. And in fact, there are people who need to see full plates at the table (which, by the way, aren't the best in terms of etiquette) to quell or reduce their cravings. They in particular need to be reminded of the content of a recent study by Penn University which demonstrated the relationship between portion size and feeling of satiety.

How to prevent nervous hunger

If you have a tendency to emotional hunger, it may also be useful to try some preventative countermeasures:

• Minimize salty foods and too sugary 
• Eat up to five times a day, with small snacks that help to break the feeling of hunger.
• Avoid buying junk food to keep on hand
• Don't go shopping on an empty stomach.
• Do vigorous and continuous physical activity
• Always eat sitting down, in a quiet place so as not to get stressed.
• While you eat, do not use your cell phone, smartphone, television or computer
• Chew slowly
• Nervous hunger strikes especially at night: if you wake up, to get back to sleep read something, take a short walk, but without passing through the kitchen

Why men are hungrier than women

Men are hungrier than women, especially during the summer months. According to research published in Nature Metabolism, the men examined, between the months of March and September, they consumed about 17 percent more calories than women which are probably more protected by their estrogens.

How to eat healthy and feel full

There are also some practical, simple, and highly effective ways to feel full quickly without overindulging and constantly craving more. First: don't sit down to eat very hungry. Snacks throughout the day also serve this purpose, reducing appetite and the amount of food needed to satisfy the feeling of satiety. Second: drink plenty of water; water suppresses appetite and reduces food cravings. Third: choose vegetables, and in some cases even fruit, as appetizers. You can indulge in these foods, as we've seen, and get off to a good start by eliminating the craving for satiety. Finally, learn to eat slowly. Not only will this aid digestion and reduce stomach and abdominal discomfort, but the feeling of satiety will also increase, and significantly. Feeling full, in a healthy way, and enjoying a pleasant sensation of well-being, is always synonymous with a healthy lifestyle. sustainable lifestyle choice, at the table. That is: don't give in to the temptations of compulsive hunger. Help yourself with a little knowledge of some essential factors, well-identified by science. Water, and all foods rich in water (starting with fruit), as we mentioned at the beginning, can be valuable in staving off or reducing hunger. One more reason to drink plenty throughout the day. satiety it is powered by proteins and fibersThe first ones are found in legumes, in white meat (turkey and chicken), in eggs and also in dairy products. Fiber, on the other hand, is an integral part of whole grains, nuts and yogurts that, with chia seeds, also add essential fatty acids to their properties. Ideal for keeping you satiated in the right way.

Nervous hunger and sleepiness

Another factor that significantly affects emotional eating is sleep, and specifically, bedtime. The Italian Society of Human Nutrition has classified people into "night owls," who go to bed and wake up later, and "larks," who go to bed and wake up earlier. Statistics show that owls consume more sweets, soda, and fast food. And therefore, they're hungrier, with a higher daily intake of calories, fat, and carbohydrates.

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