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Health

Appetite

, medical expert
Last reviewed: 19.10.2021
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Appetite is a psychological desire to eat, and often refers to specific foods. From what we feel hungry, our life depends: work, career, normal sensations in the stomach and intestines and so on.

Therefore, appetite is very important for someone who wants to be successful and in demand by a person.

trusted-source[1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6]

How does appetite affect vital activity?

How much and how we eat depends on the appetite. He may be weak or brutal, the main thing is that he is. If the appetite is strong, it can not be extinguished by a simple effort of will. It is necessary to investigate the causes of increased appetite. Maybe it's hormonal storms in the body or the lack of some hormones and the predominance of others? Maybe it's food with a high content of substances that cause appetite?

If a person does not eat enough, then the level of hormones of endorphins in the body decreases - the so-called hormones of joy. And then the person does not want to work, arrange a personal life, achieve anything. He becomes irritable and aggressive.

Consequences of prolonged fasting

If the fasting lasts more than 1 day, a man or woman (or child) may be dizzy, there may be weakness in the muscles, he can not perform regular everyday tasks. The brain activity is disrupted, simple tasks become inaccessible, a person can faint in the most inappropriate place and at the most inappropriate time (for example, when the Man of the Year Award is presented).

A person begins to lose weight sharply and look bad, his skin is no longer soft and smooth, but rough and wounded. His nails are broken, cut into hair and fall out. Teeth will not be healthy for a long time: they crumble and fall out.

All this ends with the degeneration of the personality. A person is no longer interested in what he does, his thoughts are all about eating and controlling kilograms, he is not even interested in communicating with him. Memory worsens, attention is dispelled, a person becomes a crybaby and a bore. In general, with an aesthetic moral image, you can say goodbye. That's what periodic malnutrition is.

trusted-source[7], [8], [9], [10]

Endogenous nutrition

Endogenous nutrition means internal. The person passes on to him, as soon as the body does not receive food from outside or receives it too little. And then we get the process of exhaustion: the reserves of the subcutaneous fat are consumed, then the muscle mass goes away. The person looks flabby, not well-groomed and it adds years to him.

When the body "eats" its own muscles and fats, it can live on. But the internal food reserves are limited. Therefore, soon the processes of destruction begin to actively pass through the body tissues. And all, write was gone, on the horizon death. Because the body can not always feed on its own muscles and fat. To live, you need food. And if this food appears, a person remains in the world of the living.

trusted-source[11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18]

Mechanism of Appetite Appearance

There are at least three chains that serve to saturate: appetite, eating tasty (or tasteless) dishes and working the digestive tract. As soon as you have a desire to refresh yourself, the salivary glands begin to work more actively. Therefore, people came up with the expression "drooling". This means that the stomach and intestine are ready to eat and digest. And also recycling.

But if we actively overeat, the body will also tell us about it with the help of a feeling of satiety, belching, it is impossible to even look at food - these are the reflex reactions of the body to overeating. This body signals to us: "Leave alone those buns - I can not even look at them, let alone chew."

You should always pay attention to what you especially want to eat. Acidic or salty or, conversely, sweet. This ingredient, then, in your body is not enough - it needs to be replenished, it will protect you from diseases. And you do not have to force yourself to eat that food that makes you sick - it means that there is an excess of certain substances in the body that are contained in this product. The organism is the best guide and assistant in the choice of the menu.

If a person began to want to eat after a long period of flu or cold, this is a reliable indication that he is recovering. Because the function of a good appetite is also to provide a man or woman with an adequate quality of life. Appetite comforts a person in grief, increases pleasure in joy and gives reliable protection against diseases at any age.

Role of appetite

It has not yet been uncovered by science to the end. But it is known for certain that the appetite can regulate the work of all systems of the human body, establish its emotional, physical and psychological state, and also promote social contacts. This means that you need to obey your appetite: if you are healthy, then eat what you want and refuse compulsory meals if it does not go to your soul.

But the appetite needs to be controlled. That's why you should immediately go to the endocrinologist if the appetite is too small or very large, and constantly. Strong changes in appetite - from an acute desire to eat a lot until complete reluctance to look at food - should also be alerted and forced to consult a doctor for advice.

Biological basis of appetite

There are biological bases of appetite in terms of the attractiveness of certain types of food products. People enjoy the specific food properties of the products of their qualities, such as sweetness and fatness or sour or bitter aftertaste. In the process of human evolution, the preference of products with these properties can lead people to consume foods that have special energy, for example, all know the nutritional value of carbohydrates, the energy value of fats.

Consequently, the significance of these qualities for survival is almost certainly preserved to this day. Scientists recognize that in most cultures there are highly valued eating habits based on foods that are either sweet and fatty or sour and bitter. And sometimes a combination of both - when the appetite can be especially intense.

How do these genetic signs, based on the pleasant qualities of the products, manifest themselves in the brain processes? The appeal of food is mediated signals of "rewarding yourself for anything" on the way to the brain. This way of promoting various types of pleasure can be artificially stimulated by drugs and food.

trusted-source[19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24], [25], [26], [27]

Studies of appetite mechanisms

With the help of drug research, it was found that neurochemical transmitters are involved in the reward process, these transmitters include dopamine substances, opioids, cannabinoids are molecules with their specific receptors. Studies have also empirically shown that areas of the brain that serve the most powerful pleasures can be stimulated with food.

This means that the food deficit, as evidenced by low body weight, can be whipped up by so-called reward systems, in order to increase the enjoyment of products. In practice, this will mean that people who have lost a significant body weight will show increased interest in some products that are pleasant to them, ignoring others. This will mean that their appetite will increase at the sight of some favorite products, and at the sight of the unloved - to decline.

This can be considered as a useful biological mechanism, when the appetite can be increased or decreased through a long-known phenomenon, in which the appetite perceives the external stimulus as pleasant or not, depending on internal stimuli. This concept is based on the biological concept of pleasure.

High degree of appetite

However, another mechanism also works. This mechanism is based on the recognition that some people who are rapidly gaining weight and are obese have traits that encourage them to get a high degree of pleasure from eating. Consequently, products with potent sensory properties are attractive objects for such people. And then increasing the pleasantness from the eaten can lead to excessive consumption and increased weight.

There is clear evidence that in obese women, the rate on sweet and fatty foods is very high, and they consume a significant amount of it.

Other studies have shown that obese people make their preferences only fatty foods and respond to the taste of fat with pleasure. After eating, people with obesity eat that food which is more pleasant to them than that. Which they qualify as insipid. Therefore, the cake, which is considered tasty, is eaten again and again, and a useful, non-tasteless carrot is ignored. Because of such biological properties of appetite, obesity tightly captures people in their paws, they are difficult to get out of. Especially considering the abundance of products with pleasure-stimulating properties.

Appetite and problem of choice

Activity of appetite depends on the properties of the products. Science has found products that can increase appetite and extinguish it. Given these characteristics, a person can control his appetite.

For many people, food is a cheap form of enjoyment, available every day. Satiety involves reducing the willingness of people to consume food. The question arises whether it is possible for the food industry, to increase the taste of food products, without weakening the feeling of satiety and vice versa. The balance between gustatory qualities and satiety must be observed, this is the essence of the interaction between hunger and satiety in the process of eating. That is - control over your appetite.

trusted-source[28], [29], [30], [31], [32], [33], [34]

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