There are a few reasons why you might often think about food.
Your brain uses two separate but interrelated pathways to regulate hunger and food intake. When one of these pathways is triggered, it’ll likely cause you to think about food. The following is a brief overview of each:
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- Homeostatic pathway: This pathway regulates your appetite and is stimulated when your body experiences a calorie deficit. That’s because your body needs calories to produce energy and maintain basic metabolic functions.
- Hedonic pathway: This pathway may override the homeostatic pathway and cause food cravings — particularly for hyperpalatable foods — even when your body has enough energy to maintain its metabolic functions.
Hyperpalatable foods include those that are high in fat, salt, and simple sugars, such as candy, desserts, and fried foods, among others. These foods tend to trigger sensory receptors in your brain linked to feelings of pleasure and reward.
What triggers the homeostatic pathway
The homeostatic pathway is one of your body’s primary mechanisms for letting the brain know that it needs energy from food. The main factor that triggers the homeostatic pathway in the brain is your body’s current energy balance.
When your body needs energy, it releases certain hormones, letting your brain know that you’re hungry. The result of these signals from the body may manifest as thoughts about food.
Two of the hormones your body releases to the brain in response to its current levels of energy are leptin and ghrelin. You may have heard of these referred to as your “hunger hormones.”
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Leptin suppresses hunger and thoughts about food, as it’s released when your body already has enough energy. Oppositely, ghrelin is released when your body’s low on energy, and it may cause signs of hunger, including thoughts about food.
Sometimes thinking about food often may simply mean that you’re hungry, particularly if you’re fasting or it has been a while since you’ve eaten.
What triggers the hedonic pathway
While food thoughts triggered by the homeostatic pathway are a result of true physical hunger, the hedonic pathway might cause you to think about food even when your body doesn’t need calories for energy.
The hedonic pathway is triggered by many things, including:
- the environment around you
- food availability
- your thoughts
- advertising
- emotions
- stress
Sometimes environmental cues, such as a food commercial, being in the presence of certain foods, or simply hearing someone else talk about food, can cause you to think about it.
Furthermore, research suggests that hyper-palatable foods not only stimulate the hedonic pathway in your brain but also might even encourage addiction-like behaviors, such as thinking about food more than usual.
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However, much of the research conducted on food addiction so far has been on animals. Plus, some research suggests that the homeostatic pathway may also influence addictive-like food behaviors, which makes sense considering that the two pathways are interrelated.
More studies in humans are needed to better understand this condition.
Other hunger triggers
In addition to the homeostatic and hedonic pathways, emerging research has found that gastrointestinal sensors in your gut might trigger an appetite for certain foods.
Even though you may not usually be conscious of these reactions in your brain and body, oftentimes, they can manifest as cravings or thoughts about food.
SUMMARY
The brain uses two primary pathways to regulate food thoughts. The homeostatic pathway regulates appetite based on your body’s energy stores, while the hedonic pathway may cause cravings even when you aren’t physically in need of calories.
Source: https://t-tees.com
Category: WHY
