Dictionary:
hun·ger (hŭng'gər)  |
To cause to experience hunger; make hungry.
[Middle English, from Old English hungor.]
| 5min Related Video: hunger |
| Sci-Tech Encyclopedia: Hunger |
A term most commonly used to refer to the subjective feelings that accompany the need for food; however, the study of this topic has come to include consideration of the overall control of food intake. More specifically, experimental work on the problem of hunger has been concerned with the sensory cues that give rise to feelings of hunger, the physiological mechanisms that determine when and how much food will be ingested, and the mechanism governing the selection of the food to be eaten.
Food consumption is basically controlled by the organism's nutritional status. Food deprivation leads to eating, and the ingestion of food materials terminates hunger sensations. The issues are to determine which physiological processes vary quantitatively with nutritional status, and to find out if these changes can be detected by the nervous system in a manner that would instigate and terminate food consumption.
Blood-sugar level, which has received more attention than any other factor, can be used as a case in point. The concentration of blood sugar does indeed vary appropriately in a general way with the periodicity of the food cycle. Detailed analyses of normal life variations of blood sugar, however, reveal that the relation between the concentration of blood sugar and hunger is not sufficiently close for this single humoral factor to be able to control hunger in any simple and direct manner. The evaluation of more local tissue utilization of food has proved a more promising approach to this problem. There is now some evidence suggesting that the status of the liver is pivotal in the control of feeding. Depletion of liver glycogen stimulates feeding; its repletion terminates feeding in rats and rabbits. See also Carbohydrate metabolism; Liver.
Many stimuli that terminate feeding have been identified. Eating in food-deprived animals is inhibited by the reduction of either cellular water or of plasma fluid. It is also reduced by gastric distension and by infusing nutrients into the intestine and into the systemic, especially venous hepatic, circulation. Satiation produced by nutrient absorption from the intestine may be mediated, in part, by the gut hormone cholecystokinin. It is likely that cholecystokinin is effective because it reduces the rate at which food passes through the stomach. The previously held notions of discrete neural centers for the onset and termination of feeding have been abandoned, as the complexity of the feeding act and its corresponding neural complexity have become more widely appreciated.
Deprivation of certain, specific food substances precipitates an increased appetite for the needed substance. This so-called specific hunger behavior has been demonstrated experimentally with many substances, such as salt, calcium, fats, proteins, and certain vitamins in children and in the lower animals studied. It is now clear that only the hunger for salt in salt-deprived animals appears before the animal has learned about the beneficial consequences of salt ingestion. Specific hungers for other minerals, proteins, and vitamins appear only gradually and reflect the animal's learning that certain foods are no longer beneficial and, in fact, may be harmful.
| World of the Body: hunger |
Hunger can have a variety of meanings. For example, to a nutritionist it may be used to describe starvation resulting from a lack of food. However, to most of us hunger refers to the sensations we feel when we need food, such as an aching, growling stomach, weakness, or a grumpy mood. Indeed, the Oxford English Dictionary defines hunger as ‘The uneasy or painful sensation caused by want of food.’ This sensation generally motivates an individual to find and to consume food.
Let us start our consideration of hunger with how it feels. Descriptions of hunger come from written reports consisting of checklists of particular sensations, or line scales on which the degree of a sensation is marked. Open-ended verbal reports in which the experience of hunger is described freely are of interest but difficult to quantify. Sometimes the emphasis has been on where in the body an individual experiences hunger. All of these different types of assessments agree that gastric sensations, such as an aching or growling stomach, are most commonly associated with hunger. Other sensations found to occur less frequently are weakness, headaches, pain, dizziness, anxiety, loss of concentration, food craving, thoughts of food, watering of the mouth, discomfort, dry mouth, nausea, and thirst. Large individual differences are seen in both the degree to which hunger is experienced and the way it is perceived. However, in general, when hunger is reported over the entire day it is seen to follow a cyclical pattern in which it rises gradually before meals and falls rapidly as eating proceeds.
An important issue is whether reported hunger can be used to infer how much a person would eat in a given situation. Investigators have found that in some situations hunger does correlate well with food intake, but often it does not. For example, regardless of how hungry someone feels, the amount consumed in a meal can be affected by the palatability, variety, and amount of food offered. The eating environment may also influence intake, in that people often eat more when they are with a group of friends than when eating alone.
Much research has been directed at discovering the role of hunger in the regulation of food intake and food selection. Since hunger is a subjective sensation, strictly speaking it can only be studied in humans. However, experimental animals, particularly laboratory rats, are often used in studies of hunger and the regulation of food intake. Thus, hunger has been defined in ways that do not rely on reports of subjective sensations. Hunger in animals is inferred and measured by the amount eaten. So, for example, if the time since the last meal affects the amount consumed, we assume that this is because food deprivation increases hunger. The assumption in both experimental animals and humans is that, when there is a need for food, the body senses this through a variety of physiological mechanisms, including changes in blood glucose and insulin, and metabolic signals from the liver, all of which are integrated by the brain. When the brain detects that the body needs fuel, a state of hunger develops and the animal eats an amount appropriate to reduce the hunger and reverse the deficit.
While hunger may relate to the physiological signals indicating the body's need for food, learning and environmental influences can influence it as well. A newborn baby apparently experiences hunger in response to cues signalling a need for food, and cries to be fed regularly every few hours. Gradually, through learning, this behaviour changes so that it conforms to imposed meal times. That these times vary widely between cultures — for example, dinner is eaten early in the evening in Norway and late at night in Spain — illustrates the impact of learning on the cyclical pattern of hunger over the day. Studies also indicate that people learn the types and amounts of food required to satisfy their hunger.
Sometimes hunger and food intake are unrelated to the body's need for food. For example, when we are bored or nervous, we may not feel hungry but will nevertheless eat to pass the time or to calm ourselves. Such inappropriate eating can become problematic and contribute to the development of obesity. Some behaviour therapies for obesity emphasize learning to recognize hunger sensations and to eat in response to them. However, some obese individuals complain that they never experience hunger. A critical question which has not yet been clearly answered is whether some overweight individuals have impairments in physiological systems that normally signal hunger.
It is also important to determine whether low food intake, or anorexia, can be due to impaired or reduced hunger in response to physiological needs. For example, hunger may be reduced in chronically ill patients and is reported to be low in individuals with anorexia nervosa. The challenge to their carers is how to induce them to eat. They may need to stimulate ‘appetite’ rather than hunger. While hunger refers to the need to eat, appetite relates to the pleasure of eating. It is appetite that steers us to particular foods. While hunger and appetite are often experienced together, when we are hungry and want a particular food, appetites for foods can occur in the absence of hunger. Thus, we may have an appetite for chocolate or ice cream at the end of a large meal when we are no longer hungry.
Like many other bodily systems, those underlying hunger and the regulation of food intake change with age. Many elderly people do not eat enough to maintain their body weight. While the low food intake may be due in part to poor appetite associated with decreased ability to smell and taste food, there are also changes in hunger. Older individuals not only may report decreased hunger, but studies show that many do not adjust intake appropriately to changes in bodily needs.
Studies of hunger are important clinically in that they may suggest an abnormality of physiological systems related to the detection of signals from normal metabolism of ingested food. Understanding both the biological and behavioural foundations of hunger may help to suggest therapies for inappropriate food intake. For example, some pharmacological agents can reduce both hunger and food intake, which is helpful in the treatment of obesity. When food intake is inappropriately low, treatment may involve stimulating appetite, for example, by increasing the variety and palatability of the available foods, which could increase food intake even when hunger sensations are depressed.
The sensation of hunger links our bodily needs to behavioural food seeking and ingestion. In the wild, animals would be unlikely to survive if the sensation of hunger were abnormal. However, in humans, food is often abundant and culture dictates when and how much should be consumed, so the sensation of hunger has become less crucial for survival. Nevertheless, the high incidence of disorders of body weight indicates that relying on these environmental cues rather than hunger to guide food intake is not an optimal strategy.
— Barbara J. Rolls
Bibliography
See also eating; eating disorders; obesity.
| Food and Fitness: hunger |
A need for food that is usually experienced as an unpleasant sensation. Hunger develops under conditions of food deprivation and the physiological need for nutrients. It may also be provoked by psychological factors. A child who eats lunch regularly at midday will probably feel hungry if the meal is delayed by an hour, even if there is no real physiological need.
Hunger is usually non-specific: the desire is to satisfy the need for energy, and most foods will do. However, under some circumstances of vitamin or mineral deficiency (especially salt deficiency) hunger may be very specific and result in a search for a particular food (this may explain some of the peculiar feeding behaviours of pregnant women).
Subjectively, the sensation of hunger appears to be localized in the stomach, appearing and disappearing as the stomach empties and is refilled. In the nineteenth century a North American hunter, Alexis St. Martin, suffered a gunshot wound to his side which left a hole (fistula) leading into his stomach. The fistula enabled his physician to perform some remarkable experiments, one of which demonstrated that food placed directly in the stomach reduced hunger sensations. However, subsequent experiments have shown that people given food directly in the stomach develop a strong desire to taste, chew, and swallow food. Much to the relief of restauranteurs, the mere physical presence of food in the stomach is not as satisfying as the complete process of eating!
Hunger, it seems, cannot be explained by purely local effects in the stomach and mouth. There is good evidence that the brain contains hunger mechanisms. Receptors in the brain are believed to monitor the availability of glucose for use by cells. As glucose becomes less available, hunger sensations develop. Animal experiments indicate that centres in the hypothalamus (a structure at the base of the brain) play a role in eating behaviours: one centre (the feeding or hunger centre) seems to be responsible for initiating eating, the other (the satiety centre) for stopping. However, it is not clear how important these centres are in determining feeding behaviour in people who have free access to food.
Clearly, hunger is a complex sensation. Whatever mechanism is responsible for hunger, the desire for food may become so intense that it dominates every thought and action. Compare appetite.
| Thesaurus: hunger |
| Antonyms: hunger |
Definition: appetite for food, other desire
Antonyms: aversion, satiation, satisfaction
| Veterinary Dictionary: hunger |
A craving, as for food. A localized subjective sensation, assumed to occur in animals, caused by emptiness and a resulting hypermotility of the stomach.
| Word Tutor: hunger |
The hikers experienced great hunger and thirst after they got lost in the mountains.
| Quotes About: Hunger |
Quotes:
"Hunger is not only the best cook, but also the best physician."
- Source Unknown
"Hunger is the best sauce."
- Italian Proverb
"There is hunger for ordinary bread, and there is hunger for love, for kindness, for thoughtfulness; and this is the great poverty that makes people suffer so much."
- Mother Teresa
"Wanting something is not enough. You must hunger for it. Your motivation must be absolutely compelling in order to overcome the obstacles that will invariably come your way."
- Les Brown
| Dream Symbol: Hunger |
Feeling hungry in a dream may represent a feeling of unfulfillment. The dreamer may be starving for recognition, or hungering to obtain or to achieve something long desired. Alternatively, this dream experience could simply indicate that one is actually hungry and needs to nourish oneself with good food. (See also Devour; Eating).
| Wikipedia: Hunger |
See also the articles malnutrition and starvation.
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Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (March 2008) |
Hunger is a feeling experienced when one has a desire to eat. The often unpleasant feeling originates in the hypothalamus and is released through receptors in the liver. Although an average nourished individual can survive weeks without food intake,[1] the sensation of hunger typically begins after a couple of hours without eating and is generally considered quite uncomfortable. The sensation of hunger can often be alleviated and even mitigated entirely with the consumption of food. Hunger is also the most commonly used term to describe the social condition of people who frequently experience, or live with the threat of experiencing, the physical sensation of hunger.
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When hunger contractions start to occur in the stomach, these are commonly referred to as hunger pangs. Hunger pangs usually do not begin until 12 to 24 hours after the last ingestion of food. A single hunger contraction lasts about 30 seconds, and pangs continue for around 30–45 minutes, then hunger subsides for around 30-150 minutes.[2] Individual contractions are separated at first, but are almost continuous after a certain amount of time.[2] Emotional states (anger, joy etc.) may inhibit hunger contractions.[2] Levels of hunger are increased by lower blood sugar levels, and are higher in diabetics.[2] They reach their greatest intensity in 3 to 4 days and may weaken in the succeeding days, though hunger never disappears.[3] Hunger contractions are most intense in young, healthy people who have high degrees of gastrointestinal tonus. Periods between contractions increase with old age.[2]
The fluctuation of leptin and ghrelin hormone levels results in the motivation of an organism to consume food. When an organism eats, adipocytes trigger the release of leptin into the body. Increasing levels of leptin results in a reduction of one's motivation to eat.[4] After hours of non-consumption, leptin levels drop significantly. These low levels of leptin cause the release of secondary hormone, ghrelin, which in turn reinitiates the feeling of hunger.
Some studies have suggested that an increased production of ghrelin may enhance appetite evoked by the sight of food, while an increase in stress may also influence the hormone's production.[5] These findings may help to explain why hunger can prevail even in stressful situations.
Hunger appears to increase activity and movement in many animals - for example, an experiment on spiders showed increased activity and predation in starved spiders, resulting in larger weight gain.[6] This pattern is seen in many animals, including humans while sleeping.[7] It even occurs in rats with their cerebral cortex or stomachs completely removed.[8] Increased activity on hamster wheels occurred when rats were deprived not only of food, but also water or B vitamins such as thiamine[9] This response may increase the animal's chance of finding food, though it has also been speculated the reaction relieves pressure on the home population.[7]
On June 19, 2009, it was reported that world hunger hit one billion people,[10] about a sixth of the world's total population.
There were 923 million hungry people in the world in 2007, an increase of 80 million since 1990.[11] The world already produces enough food to feed everyone - 6 billion people - and could feed the double - 12 billion people.[12]
The Meals On Wheels Association of America Foundation (MOWAAF) has found that hunger is a serious threat facing millions of seniors in the United States, and that understanding the problem is a critical first step to developing remedies. In 2007, MOWAAF, underwritten by the Harrah's Foundation, commissioned a research study entitled The Causes, Consequences and Future of Senior Hunger in America.[13] The report was released at a hearing of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging in March 2008 in Washington, D.C.
The study found that in the United States, over 5 million seniors, (11.4% of all seniors), experience some form of food insecurity (i.e., were marginally food insecure). Of these, about 2.5 million are at-risk of hunger, and about 750,000 suffer from hunger due to financial constraints. Some groups of seniors are more likely to be at-risk of hunger. Relative to their representation in the overall senior population, those with limited incomes, under age 70, African-Americans, Hispanics, never-married individuals, renters, and persons living in the Southern United States are all more likely to be at-risk of hunger. While certain groups of seniors are at greater-risk of hunger, hunger cuts across the income spectrum. For example, over 50% of all seniors who are at-risk of hunger have incomes above the poverty threshold. Likewise, it is present in all demographic groups. For example, over two-thirds of seniors at-risk of hunger are caucasian. There are marked differences in the risk of hunger across family structure, especially for those seniors living alone, or those living with a grandchild. Those living alone are twice as likely to experience hunger compared to married seniors. One in five senior households with a grandchild (but no adult child) present is at-risk of hunger, compared to about one in twenty households without a grandchild present. Seniors living in non-metropolitan areas are as likely to experience food insecurity as those living in metropolitan areas, suggesting that food insecurity cuts across the urban-rural continuum.[14]
| Year | 1970 | 1980 | 1990 | 2005 | 2007 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Share of hungry people in the developing world[15][16] | 37 % | 28 % | 20 % | 16 % | 17 % |
A food craving is an intense desire to consume a specific food, as opposed to general hunger. Similarly, thirst is the craving for fluids. Withdrawal craving is a "hunger" for administering addictive drugs.
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| Translations: Hunger |
Dansk (Danish)
n. - sult, hunger, begær, trang
v. intr. - sulte, hungre
v. tr. - sulte, hungre
idioms:
Nederlands (Dutch)
honger, eetlust, hongersnood
Français (French)
n. - faim, famine, (fig) désir ardent (de)
v. intr. - (fig) avoir faim de
v. tr. - soumettre à la famine, manquer de nourriture
idioms:
Deutsch (German)
n. - Hunger, Hungersnot
v. - Hunger haben, hungern, aushungern, hungern nach (Macht usw.)
idioms:
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - πείνα, λιγούρα, (μτφ.) δίψα, λαχτάρα, σφοδρή επιθυμία
idioms:
idioms:
Português (Portuguese)
n. - fome (f), desejo (m)
idioms:
idioms:
Español (Spanish)
n. - hambre, hambruna
v. intr. - tener hambre, estar hambriento, ansiar, anhelar
v. tr. - hacer pasar hambre
idioms:
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - hunger (äv. bildl.), längtan
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
饿, 饥饿, 渴望, 饥荒, 挨饿, 使挨饿
idioms:
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 餓, 饑餓, 渴望, 饑荒
v. intr. - 挨餓, 渴望
v. tr. - 使挨餓
idioms:
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 굶주림, 갈망
v. intr. - 굶주리다, 갈망하다
v. tr. - 굶주리게 하다
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 飢え, 飢餓, 空腹, 熱望, 渇望
v. - 飢える, 渇望する
idioms:
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) جوع, سغب, توق, اشتهاء
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - רעב, תאווה
v. intr. - השתוקק, רעב
v. tr. - הרעיב
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 | eating |
| eating disorders |
| obesity |
 | What is distancing hunger? |
| What are the cause of africa's hunger? |
| Why is there hunger in mexico? |
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Sci-Tech Encyclopedia. McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. Copyright © 2005 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| World of the Body. The Oxford Companion to the Body. Copyright © 2001, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Food and Fitness. Food and Fitness: A Dictionary of Diet and Exercise. Copyright © 1997, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Dream Symbol. The Dreams Encyclopedia. 1995 ©Visible Ink Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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