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Tuesday, 14 August 2007 |
 Question: Why do I sometimes feel hungry even if my stomach is full?
Answer: The feeling of satiety is far more complicated than a full stomach. Researchers have discovered a cocktail of hormones that control your appetite, or how much you eat. The most recently discovered hormone, known as PYY3-36, is responsible for the feeling of "fullness" controlling the amount of food consumed. Levels of the hormone rise when you're stuffed, and remain high for the few hours between meals. PYY3-36 tells you to eat when you feel hungry and to stop eating when you've eaten enough.
The key player here are the cells lining the bowel that make PYY3-36 when it becomes filled with food. Eating a meal stimulates hormone release for up to 12 hours by travelling to the brain's centre (hypothalamus) where it shuts down nerves that trigger eating .PYY3-36 is thought to work on the same nerves in the hypothalamus as a 'hunger' hormone called ghrelin secreted by the empty stomach cells. Another hormone, leptin, triggers appetite when your fat stores run low, especially if you have been losing weight for some time. Can you naturally limit our appetite when 'eyes are bigger than the stomach'? Bulky, fibrous foods such as vegetables and whole grains, stimulate the release of more PYY3-36 than fast foods. The reason here is that undigested fibre moves further down the gut, while sugars from candy bars are mainly dissolved in the stomach. But even when your hormone levels are balanced, you still may feel like eating more simply by the conscious decision to eat. This is influenced by food's taste, our expectations and emotions. The bottom line is hunger, or the desire to eat, is dictated by the choices you make in your lifestyle patterns and habits that form with them. By Elena Voropay
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