Issue 2: The 3 Types of Hunger – Information for Therapists & Professionals to Know

The types of hunger and what to consider for your clients/patients

In this second issue of our therapist & allied professional newsletter, we’re diving into the three types of hunger! The information and blog post below offer practical insights you can bring into sessions or use to guide referrals when it might be helpful to dive deeper with a dietitian.

Trusting your hunger and fullness is hard! 

For many of the clients we see in our nutrition counselling practice, it can be hard to tell if you are actually hungry, thirsty or full. This especially becomes challenging if you have grown up in a family that encouraged you to finish everything on your plate or have a history of dieting, an eating disorder or have struggled to lose weight.

We often talk about trusting these hunger and fullness cues as an advanced skill because there are so many things that can affect them including your current patterns of eating, hormone fluctuations, anxiety, depression, medications, sleep and stress. To discover if we can trust these body cues, we practice bringing some awareness to what we are experiencing (or not) within our body. This can help us decide if we are able to eat intuitively or if we need to stick to a more mechanical pattern of eating.

To sort out the hunger confusion, read on to get a sense of some things that can help you reset your hunger cues.

What is the difference between appetite and hunger?

Appetite is the desire for food often triggered by the senses such as seeing, smelling or thinking about food.

•Even if you are hungry, your lack of appetite can stop you from eating (such as when you are sick, anxious, or feel stressed).

•Even if you are full, your appetite can encourage you to keep eating (such as when you are bored, sad or fatigued).

Hunger is the normal sensation cued by the brain when your stomach is empty. Signs of physical or stomach hunger are different for everyone but often include stomach growling or feeling lightheaded or grouchy.

How is hunger regulated?

Hunger is partly controlled by the hypothalamus in the brain, your blood sugar level and how empty your stomach and intestines are. There are also two main hunger hormones that shift appetite regulation:

• Leptin: hormone made by fat cells that decreases appetite

• Ghrelin: hormone that is released primarily in the stomach and is thought to signal hunger to the brain to increase appetite.

What are the 3 types of hunger?

Different types of hunger have different types of needs. Short timeouts and slowing down allows us to assess if our hunger is one of the following (as defined by Craving Change (a cognitive-behavioural intervention for problematic eating) that we use extensively in our nutrition counselling practice:

Stomach hunger (physical or medical necessity to eat)

Mouth hunger (craving related to the senses)

Heart hunger (emotional trigger or learned behaviour) 

What are some strategies to help satisfy Stomach Hunger?

•It is very difficult to manage mouth hunger or heart hunger if you first don’t take care of stomach hunger to make sure you are adequately nourished.

•Honour and respect your body’s physical need for food by choosing not to skip meals.

•Choose not to go on a diet and deprive yourself of enough calories.

•Eat breakfast every day as one of the most important ways to fix the evening is to fix the start of the day (after all, everything is connected).

•Eat every three to five hours throughout the day to manage your energy and prevent drops in your blood sugar that will trigger overeating.

•Choose not to restrict adequate carbs, protein or fat.

•Work with a registered dietitian to help you understand the science of food and your body’s requirements.

What are some strategies to manage Mouth Hunger?

•If stomach hunger has been addressed but you are still craving a specific food, take time to explore exactly what it is you are craving.

•Stop what I like to call “chewing around a craving” which is the act of sampling many healthy items from your kitchen to try and satisfy a particular craving for a so-called “forbidden food.”

•Take time to figure out specifically what you are craving. Is it a particular food? Is it something sweet, savoury, creamy, crunchy, warm or cold?

•Since most of us eat packages, not portions, provide yourself with a reasonable end point (buy small individual sized packages or portion out hard to manage foods).

•Remember that healthy eating can and should include soulful foods chosen for enjoyment, not nutrition.

What are some strategies for helping Heart Hunger?

•Everyone eats for emotional reasons sometimes. It is very normal to eat when you are sad, mad, happy or stressed.

•If you are struggling regularly with stuffing uncomfortable emotions with food, seek help by a registered Psychologist that specialises in emotional eating that can help.

Begin by taking time to explore these three important questions  

•What is eating me?

•What in my life am I hungry for that has not come my way yet?

•How can I comfort, soothe and nurture myself without food?

💬 Try This First for Yourself.

“What type of hunger am I feeling right now?”

Without judgement, pay attention to your urge to eat or not eat. You can start to question which type of hunger it might be. Tip: It might actually be more than 1 type of hunger too.

Using this strategy, we can start to notice patterns in our own behaviours and how they impact our relationship with food. Remember, that all types of hunger are valid and are there for a reason!

Also feel free to share the above article with clients that you think may benefit at https://www.healthstandnutrition.com/hungertracker/

Let us know if you have any nutrition questions personally or for the clients you serve. We’re always happy to help