Feed Me Before I Get Hangry
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” — Yoda
“Hangry” isn’t just a clever portmanteau to describe the angry behavior when skipping a meal. It can become a real problem if it develops into a routine.
What Is Hunger and How Do You Know You’re Hungry?
Hunger is a feeling of displeasure or frailty caused by an absence of food that makes you want to eat. How does this happen? Your body tells your brain that your stomach is empty. This makes your stomach growl and causes you hunger pangs. However, everyone experiences hunger differently. There are several components of the body that control hunger. They are the hypothalamus (a part of the brain), glucose levels (blood sugar), certain hormone levels, and how empty the stomach and intestines are. It can occur fast for one person and slow for another.
When Does Hunger Become “Hanger” Though?
According to research published by the American Psychological Association, it is a complex emotional response comprised of anatomy, personality, and environmental factors. Kristen Lindquist, the co-author of the study, said, “You don’t just become hungry and start lashing out at the universe. We’ve all felt hungry, recognized the unpleasantness as hunger, had a sandwich and felt better. We find that feeling hangry happens when you feel unpleasantness due to hunger but interpret those feelings as strong emotions about other people or the situation you’re in.”
The results of the examination determined that when a person experienced something negative when they were hungry and less aware of their emotions, they were more inclined to react negatively to anything afterward.
Two different studies were completed with hungry and satiated participants. One of them was a test where the participants would rate images either positive, neutral, or negative. Many of the famished participants rated neutral images negatively when presented with a negative image beforehand. The other test was a botched computer exercise that would crash before the participants could complete it, then a researcher would come in and blame them for it. Many of the hungry participants surveyed that they felt negative emotions, such as stress or hate, about the interaction more so than the satiated ones. They even said they found the researcher more critical and cruel.
“A well-known commercial once said, ‘You’re not you when you’re hungry,’ but our data hints that by simply taking a step back from the present situation and recognizing how you’re feeling, you can still be you even when hungry,” said Jennifer MacCormack, MA, in a press release.
What Can Being “Hangry” Do To Your Body?
Based on a study done by the University of Guelph, hunger-induced rats showed signs of stress, anxiety, and lethargy. The tests examined the impact of hypoglycemia in rats and what it would do to their emotional and physical state. The rats were separated into chambers for the experiment and then injected with a glucose metabolism blocker. This caused them to experience low blood sugar, which is just one of the factors that control hunger. Their immediate reactions included sluggishness and increased cortisone production, an indicator of physiological stress. After the tests were complete, the rats were brought back to the same chambers and exhibited avoidance behavior toward them, an indicator of psychological stress. The results prove that hypoglycemia contributes to negative mood states.
PhD student of University of Guelph, Thomas Horman said in a press release, “Poor mood and poor eating can become a vicious cycle in that if a person isn’t eating properly, they can experience a drop in mood, and this drop in mood can make them not want to eat. If someone is constantly missing meals and constantly experiencing this stressor, the response could affect their emotional state on a more constant level.”
What Can You Do To Prevent Becoming “Hangry”?
Other than the obvious solution of eating, there are many ways to prevent becoming “hangry”. The techniques include being aware of your emotions and noticing the signs of possibly reaching a state of “hangry”, avoiding negative situations until you’ve gotten a chance to eat, or simply snacking often so you aren’t ravenous if you miss a meal by a little bit. Being aware of your emotions provides you the option to re-assess and correct yourself before it becomes a problem. Avoiding negative situations will keep you from becoming “hangry” for longer but it won’t keep it from happening altogether so it’s a way to find a meal or snack without freaking out on anyone. Snacking often will allow for fewer circumstances in which you will be close to getting “hangry”. Also, selecting better foods to snack on can help, too. For example, choosing sugary foods will only result in a crash shortly after so picking out a banana or an apple would be a smarter choice in the long run.
“Our bodies play a powerful role in shaping our moment-to-moment experiences, perceptions and behaviors — whether we are hungry versus full, tired versus rested or sick versus healthy,” MacCormack said. “This means that it’s important to take care of our bodies, to pay attention to those bodily signals and not discount them, because they matter not just for our long term mental health, but also for the day-to-day quality of our psychological experiences, social relationships and work performance.”
MacCormack, J., MA, & Lindquist, K., PhD. (2018, June 11). Are you really you when you’re hungry? Retrieved October 9, 2018, from https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-06/apa-ayr060718.php
Leri, F., & Horman, T. (2018, September 25). Researchers reveal link between hunger and mood, new study. Retrieved October 9, 2018, from https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-09/uog-rrl092518.php
