What do YOU consider hunger??

[matto melanzana]

Everybody has a different view on this and I would like to know what you consider hunger, before and after going raw. Is it a thirst or throat hunger like some long term raws describe, or does your stomach feel empty? Maybe hunger to you is desiring food. Has your perception changed after raw? I was just wondering.

[Oceana]

Unfortunately my "hunger " feeling has gotten lost in the years of SAD; so I will keep a close eye on this thread!

[ShelShel]

Ok...I got to actually experience hunger once in the last 3 weeks. :p I usually eat at scheduled meal times, but last week one thing led to another...and I went without lunch. I was great...we were driving home around 6:30 pm and my stomache started to hurt. All I thought was that's weird. Then I sat down to journal my day and realized...I had gone all day without food and didn't notice it until dinner time...when I got a pain. It wasn't a normal tummy rumble...like when I was sad...it was an empty pain almost throbbing. Don't know how else to describe it. :rolleyes: After I ate again...I felt great. Today...I did the same thing...skipped lunch because I was so into what I was doing...I just lost track of the time. I have never been able to do that my whole life. Food is fuel for me now...and apparently, I require a lot less than I used too. :o

[lissomllama]

Hunger for me is an empty feeling in my stomach accompanied by a little growling sound/feeling and a sort of pang in my throat. I do not experience the thirst feeling that often because I stay very well hydrated and do not allow myself to become dehydrated. I've been thirsty before though and let me tell you it was the worst feeling. I felt hot and dry and my mouth was all thick and it was hard to swallow. Water is truly such a life giver.

[Tombi]

Great question! I have to confess that I never could remember what hunger really was until I got pregnant and then when I started to eat raw. Eventhough I felt pangs. For as long as I can remember I was always an emotional eater. I ate because...I smelled it, because I saw it, because I was sad, because I wanted to celebrate, because I wanted it and it was there but never because I was truly hungery. The first week I started eating raw I made the fatal mistake that most of us make and started eating one apple then on banana instead of eating as many as I needed to satisfy my hunger. But that is how you learn! :D Being totally raw, I know that when I am hungery I am really hungery and not just craving something.

Happy Journey
Ntombi

[rawfigure]

I experience hunger daily. Empty tummy, gnawing feeling. I wake up this way and go to bed this way. How fun is that !!!!!!!!!!!! :rolleyes:

[SNMB]

I see sort of four stages of hunger.

1. The "true hunger" that they talk about in fasting books, which is just the "pleasant feeling at the back of the throat". I've never experienced this.

2. The "Oh My God, Low Blood Sugar, I Need To Eat Right Now" hunger, which doesn't have a stomach feeling, but a general weakness feeling. This one is very mental for me. When I'm fasting, even just on water, and I know that I won't be eating for a while, I don't have this problem. However, when I know that I can have food but that it's going to take a while, I often get this panicky feeling.

3. The deep, hollow hunger feeling. This it the feeling I have the most fond memories of. (If I experienced true hunger it would likely bump this one out.) I associate this with taking a nap after soccer practice in the winter, waking up with an empty feeling in my stomach, so it's both because it's been a long time since I've eaten AND because I've recently used a lot of energy. This doesn't have pain or nausea involved, just an empty stomach feeling. This is the happiest for me because I remember getting out of bed, saying hello to my parents and usually finding spaghetti or something on the stove, almost ready to eat.

4. Painful, nauseating hunger. This is the least true hunger, in my opinion. I used to tell people that I simply HAD to eat breakfast because otherwise I got sick. I now realize that this had to do with SAD eating. I only get this if I'm eating really terribly and it's usually only in the mornings. It's an intense feeling in the stomach accompanied with a watery mouth, like I'm going to vomit. I goes completely away when I'm raw.

[Light of an Angel]

This is such a cool question. I have noticed a huge difference with how I "feel" hunger. On SAD it would have been stomach cramps and growling. On Raw it is a slight change in energy level. There is this feeling of being spacy and getting weak and as soon as I eat my energy increases and I feel more grounded.

[rawpriestess]

huuummmmmmm good question,

on Sad, it was either when I had any room in my stomach to fill, LOL
or when I had been without food for about 24 hours, and I was feeling ill, I never could seem to get it in the middle

on Raw, it is when I feel like I could and would eat almost anything, every kind of raw food is appealing, I'm not just wanting a specific food, I want anything, LOL so I know I'm not craving anything, as I have this Need for food, it's not a want, it's a need.

sometimes, I can go all day with only eating a couple of bites of food, but usually I eat at least one small meal, with a few pieces of fruit each day.

[juliebove]

I don't recall ever feeling anything in my throat when I'm hungry. My stomach will first feel really empty. It might growl, however growling alone is not a sign to me because my stomach will also growl if it is upset or if I've eaten something I'm allergic to. If I've gone too long without eating I might get lightheaded, get a pounding headache or even pass out. I do have diabetes and reactive hypoglycemia so for me it's often an issue of blood sugar that's a big clue. I usually do not get hungry though.

[meinleben]

this is a good thread...makes you think about your own truth of hunger...

i have been thinking about this and i believe i have never been truly hungry...or maybe just a few times in life....i mean i can say that i "thought" i have been hungry....like very often....

i think people that are truly hungry in third world countries (that are starving) could explain this concept from an intense perspective...

most of us do not know what it is like to not have food available....we choose to fast....we choose to eat the way we do (thank god)...so i think our views on hunger are different....i think the body is soooo amazing that we would be surprised what are true true hunger really is...

[CaptainSwab]

Usually I get tired and/or weak. Sometimes I get a headache although I suspect that I am dehydrated most days. Wouldn't headaches have more to do with deydration?

[Smiley24_7]

Well apparently my hunger has disappeared. Since dont feel hungry I wont eat very much and then near the end of the day I'll feel like I didnt get enough calories and ill eat something a little higher in calories, such as an avocado or some bananas. Its just more like weakness I'd say. I just KNOW I needed more food, its like a gut feeling.

[dreamrawalwz]

on SAD during my anorexia it was a deep growling feeling (something I'll always remember). Before then I don't know how it felt. After recovery I don't KNOW what hunger is. I don't feel hungry...or full. When I do feel that deep growling it scares me since I don't want to remember the anorexia. For the past couple years I guess my "hunger" is when I get weak, dizzy, foggy brained, and tired.

[matto melanzana]

It's funny how everybody has a different interpretation of what hunger is! The term is used so vaguely that we've lost a universal meaning. Any other input for their interpretation of hunger? And do you eat untill satisfied and you don't want more, or by the fullness of your stomach? Such an interesting discussion!

[tinystrawberry]

honestly, i don't think i've ever experienced real hunger. when i think i'm 'hungry' is when my tummy starts to rumble.

i agree, this thread is interesting.

[matto melanzana]

Hey, lets keep this thread going! When do you personally decide to eat? What is hunger to YOU? And has it changed since raw?

[Lay-Lay]

I do like this thread.

mmmm.....hunger to me....on SAD I would get super thirsty. I was constantly drinking water with no end. I don't know how many times my mom told me she thought I was a diabetic because I was thirsty all the time. In addition to thinking this was because I was dehydrated, I think my body was starving for wholesome nutrition.

I still do this, but I don't reach for the water now. I reach for food and guess what? I am no longer thirsty. I drink tons less water since I went raw (I used to drink 3-4 gallons of water a day). I realize now that my body was starving.

I think there is a big difference between starving and hungry. I am hungry daily, but starving is something I only experienced when on SAD food.

I try not to eat until I am a stuffed bell pepper. I try to leave the table a little hungry and then if I am still hungry 20-30 minutes later I will go back and have something else.

When I was SAD I would wake up starving and I would go to bed very full, yet I was still starving. I really believe I had some nutrition absorbtion problems that raw has now corrected.

LOL, now my mom everytime I see her and give her a hug she saids you smells so nice. It's like the same smell you would smell in one of those herb/healthfood stores. She said: that has got to be a good thing.

Last night I was not hungry, but I went to my parents and they were eating meat and the smell was very appealing, so I went to the store and got me a coconut and a watermelon and and ate some of each and almost forgot all about the SAD smell and looks. YEAH!

[daylene]

This is a great discussion!

Personally, I get a lot of hunger pangs -- I'm very familiar with them, since I've been getting them all my life. They are definately in the stomach, not in the throat or head. Before going raw, any hunger pangs at all would be accompanied by high anxiety, almost like panic.

But now, after two months of raw, my hunger pangs are much lighter, and I can usually ignore them if I want. I may get one or two, then nothing for a couple of hours. I decide to eat when I can no longer ignore the pangs, or if I'm getting them more frequently.

When I was SAD, I got seriously hungry every 2 -- 3 hours, especially after eating large, starchy meals. This convinced me that what I was feeling was more of a blood sugar thing, like hypoglycemia or even pre-diabetes, than actual hunger. Since going raw this has disappeared.

Now I can go 5 or 6 hours at least without feeling true hunger.

Sometimes I do eat when I'm not technically hungry yet -- like when I'm visiting family and lunch is served and I know it will be 6 hours until dinner. My inlaws don't take kindly to eating between meals and there would be a lot of raised eyebrows if I were seen raiding the refrigerator at 3pm!

My body sends out 2 signals to tell me to stop eating. The first one is satisfaction -- which is just a general sense of well-being and loss of appetite. If I don't stop there, within a few minutes my stomach feels full -- not stuffed to bursting, just a little tightness.

[Apasaraw]

Lay-Lay, I understand what you mean about the thirst. On SAD I was constantly thirsty. I'd drink water until bloated and sick and still feel unquenched. On raw, I'm never thirsty. It's like I used to be dehydrated on a cellular level and the water wasn't getting to where it was needed.

Anyway to hunger...

I never felt hunger in all my years on SAD. I would "forget to eat" and occassionally this would lead to a headache from Hades. I get busy and distracted pretty easily. Eating was social for me but I could never eat the gobs of food others were downing. I just wasn't hungry. I ate to eat because you have to. Eating used to annoy me by taking my time.

Now, hunger is a thirsty feeling and then an actual pang in my belly if I let it go too long. I remember the first weeks raw when I'd wake with terrible tummy aches and wonder why. My hubby explained to me that I was hungry. So I'd eat and voila, no tummy ache. So THATS hunger? It was a whole new discovery for me. Now I'm hungry every few hours and eat whatever I feel like and feel hydrated, satisfied and really enjoy food.

[sevenbravo]

I have pretty much found that for me, if my eyes are open, I am hungry. :D

[spicyfull]

Before I had to fight hunger, now I might just feel a little weak..........