Why does a person experience hunger?

Hunger is caused by nerve impulses coming from the stomach, which enter the central nervous system and then the brain. Simply put, the stomach reminds the brain that it is empty and ready for further work on food processing. The feeling of hunger is the voice of nature, saying that the body needs new food supplies for further processing and energy production.

I want to eat constantly, but I restrain myself, but my sister eats very little and does not suffer from hunger. Why?

There are people who very quickly after the next meal begin to feel hungry. However, this is not a real hunger, they just mistake the strong excitement of the stomach for hunger. The stomach sends an impulse to the nervous system with the message that it has just done a good job and is now active, excited. Other organs of the digestive system still process food. The signal comes distorted: I am empty and therefore active. And the person feels that he is hungry. How to determine whether the feeling of hunger is false or not? Very simple. With real hunger, any food is perceived with pleasure. With false hunger, a certain food is perceived: you want sweet, sour, salty, etc.You can not go on about the false feeling of hunger, you should wait for the real one – and satisfy it. The real feeling of hunger usually occurs only after all the food from the stomach goes away and is processed and the blood needs new nutrients to replenish all the organs and tissues of the body. The habit of indulging in false hunger leads to overeating and, as a result, to metabolic disorders and obesity. Be careful!

Somewhere I heard the phrase: “Fat people gain weight just by thinking about food.” This is about me: I think about food all the time and I want it, and the weight is already 90 kg! In short, my appetite doesn’t just come from eating. And what is appetite, in fact?

Appetite is the sensation that a person experiences at the sight of food, at the sensation of its smell and taste. But many people confuse the two concepts – appetite and hunger. A well-fed person is not so acutely aware of the smell of food, he is not excited by its appearance and he does not want to imagine various dishes in his thoughts. All this is more inherent in a hungry person. First comes the hunger, then the appetite.

Are there any folk remedies, herbs, to suppress the appetite?

You can suppress your appetite with herbs, such as an extract or infusion of corn stigmas (sold in pharmacies). It should be taken 30-40 drops before meals 4 times a day for 2 weeks, then you need a break for a month. The infusion can be prepared by yourself. Pour 1 tablespoon of raw materials with 1 cup of boiling water and let it stand for 4-6 hours, then strain and squeeze. It is better to store the liquid in the refrigerator.

In addition, there are simple methods. Try not to be in the room where the food is being prepared, do not look at it. Beautifully laid out products, their smell will certainly cause a response of the body-there will be an appetite. Do not go to grocery stores for shopping hungry – your appetite will make you collect bags full of food, which then you will have to eat quickly, so as not to spoil, which will be deposited fat on your body.

Why does obesity appear?

Because there is a discrepancy between the intake of calories and their consumption. We eat a lot, but we move a little. Promotes the accumulation of excess weight predisposition – “feeding” in childhood leads to an increase in the number of cells that synthesize fat. Very often, obesity is caused by diseases of the endocrine system. In rarer cases, obesity is caused by taking certain medications, such as prednisone.

What foods are useful for getting rid of excess weight?

Useful are gooseberries, curly parsley, beets, celery, buckwheat, barley, pearl barley, rice, cottage cheese, leeks, cucumbers, all types of lettuce, pumpkin, sour apple varieties, etc. Carrot juice, a mixture of potato, carrot and cabbage juices, as well as fresh pumpkin juice are useful.

I want to try to lose weight during Lent, otherwise I can’t force myself to starve. In general, can fasting promote weight loss? I often wonder why they came up with posts?

From the point of view of religion, the meaning of fasting is to abstain from heavy food, dry up the body, make it mobile, light, help the soul to live a spiritual life, prayers and the sacraments of the church. Fasts are a test of believers ‘ resilience against temptation, patience and humility.

From a medical point of view, the beneficial effect of fasting on human health is absolutely proven. This can be confirmed by the example of our ancestors, who carefully observed all the fasts and were strong, healthy in body and spirit. Fasting abstinence is easier to tolerate than simply fasting and food restrictions for medical purposes.

Doctors believe that the principles of fasting should be used by modern people, regardless of their religion. During fasting, the body has the opportunity to get rid of toxins, get an additional amount of alkaline food, and restore the balance of enzymes in the digestive organs.

But the meaning of religious fasting is much broader than the simple idea of cleansing and improving the body through food. From a religious point of view, fasting is primarily aimed at helping the believer to be cleansed from spiritual contamination, and restrictions on food should only contribute to this process – spiritual purification.

Why don’t diets help me?

It’s not just you, it’s a problem for most people who go on diets. Very often, after a month or two on a strict diet, a person can lose several kilograms. But at the same time, two dangers can lie in wait for him. First: these pounds will return to you again as soon as you start eating the same way. Second: a sharp weight loss will necessarily affect the beauty of the figure – the skin will sag, the muscles will become flabby, folds will form on the stomach.

It is necessary to lose weight carefully and very slowly. The whole point is that the body, suddenly found on a “starvation ration”, reacts in the most natural way: the metabolism slows down, and fats are stored “for a rainy day”. Normal metabolism is disrupted when the body is deficient in certain substances.

Do you know what the most important thing in nutrition is when a person wants to lose weight? DON’t make any sudden movements! You should not expose the body to stress (and without this there are enough disorders!) and plunge it into a state of panic. Because, without getting the usual food, the body, programmed to survive in any conditions, gives itself the command to lay down a store of food. In the event that there will come a more “black day”. That is, the mechanism of intensive fat accumulation is triggered. And with strict monotonous diets, it turns out exactly like this: the more a person loses weight, the more he suffers, and the more he suffers, the more he gets fat… A vicious circle!

And more. Usually in the body of overweight women, there is a lack of fluid in the tissues. In order for the slags to be removed from the body in a timely manner, and according to some assumptions, their delay is one of the reasons for the formation of cellulite, you need to drink enough liquid during the day. Nutritionists advise-not less than two liters a day.

My sister tells me that I am so fat because I swallow food without chewing, and she is thin because she chews everything like a cow. Who’s right?

Your sister is right. It is noticed that almost all people who are overweight eat quickly and greedily, as if swallowing huge chunks entirely, and thin people, as a rule, eat slowly, chewing their food thoroughly. The fact is that when we eat slowly, we eat much less food than when we are in a hurry. In addition, eating quickly and chewing food poorly is very harmful to the gastrointestinal tract.

I went to the pool for a year in the hope of losing weight, but for some reason nothing happened, the weight is the same. Why?

First, sports must be combined with a proper diet, otherwise nothing will work. And secondly, American scientists say that swimming in cold water does not help, but prevents weight loss. This is due to the fact that people after bathing in cold water begin to consume more food than people who bathed in warm water.

My mother turned 60 and finally decided to retire. We are happy about this. But the strange thing is, she’s been slim all her life, and now she’s fat. Because of this, she developed shortness of breath. What do you think caused this drastic change, is she ill?

I hope that your mother is not ill, she just did not change her diet in a new way. And in old age, the food system needs to be changed. After all, during this period, a person becomes less physically mobile, which means that his metabolism slows down: food substances are less absorbed and less intensively broken down to the final products of metabolism. In the elderly, the activity of the endocrine glands decreases, they become more reserved in emotions, calmer, which also leads to the accumulation of fat.

If you do not change the usual approach to nutrition, then there will always be metabolic disorders, diseases of the cardiovascular system, gastrointestinal tract, obesity, etc.

By the way, in the elderly, the opposite process can also be observed – emaciation, which depends on a lack of gastric and intestinal juices, accompanied by a decrease in appetite, a decrease in the digestibility of food, the activity of the genital and other endocrine glands, atherosclerosis. The onset of such age-related changes must be taken into account, which requires a corresponding change in the nature of nutrition and lifestyle.

And for shortness of breath, which many obese people suffer from, I can advise an old recipe from traditional medicine. Mix 10 heads of garlic, ground into a pulp, the juice of 10 lemons and 1 kg of honey, insist in a closed container in a dark cool place for 1 week, stirring the contents periodically. Take 1 time a day for 4 teaspoons, but do not swallow immediately, and do not rush, slowly eat one spoonful after another. Don’t miss the days. This amount should be enough for 2 months of treatment. If necessary, continue treatment after a 1-month break.

I am 55 years old, I feel great, but I think that I should eat less, otherwise I will get fat. How many “almost elderly” people should eat and what is better to eat in order not to get better?

It is believed that people over the age of 50 years need daily: women – up to 2500 kcal, men – up to 3000; over 60 years – women up to 2000 kcal, men up to 2500 kcal (the number of kilocalories in some products is given in the Appendix). The daily norm of proteins, fats and carbohydrates is: proteins – 80-100 g, fats-70-80 g (including about 25 g of vegetable oil), carbohydrates 300-400 g (limit easily absorbed carbohydrates-sugar, flour dishes).

In the elderly, you should eat 4-5 times a day, and the last meal should be no later than 2 hours before bedtime. Before going to bed, you can drink a glass of kefir or yogurt, eat an apple or carrot.

Recommended foods and dishes

Bread and bakery products: wheat and rye bread, preferably yesterday’s baking, bread with bran, crackers, cookies. Muffin should be limited.

Soups: vegetarian and vegetable (soup, beetroot soup, borscht). Low-fat meat and fish broths 2-3 times a week.

Meat, poultry and fish dishes: a variety of low-fat meat varieties, mainly boiled or baked.

Vegetables: cabbage, onion, garlic, all kinds of root vegetables, pumpkin, tomatoes, legumes in raw and boiled form. Be sure to include dishes of seaweed in the diet. Radish, spinach, sorrel are recommended to limit.

Fruits and berries: all kinds.

Spices: allspice, bay leaf, savory, basil, mint, tarragon, cloves, parsley, celery, coriander.

Dishes from cereals: millet, wheat, buckwheat, corn, oatmeal, semolina, pearl barley and other cereals, casseroles, puddings. Pasta and rice-limited.

Milk and dairy products: all types, especially fermented milk. Medium-fat cottage cheese made from skimmed milk. Sour cream and cream-limited.

Eggs and egg dishes: 2-3 times a week, 1 soft-boiled egg or in the form of milk-protein omelets.

Sweets: limited.

Table salt: 6-8 g per day.

Snacks: low-fat sausages, soft cheeses, low-salt varieties of herring, seafood, all kinds of vegetable salads and vinaigrettes.

Fats: various vegetable oils, preferably unrefined. Butter is limited, no more than 20-30 g per day. Animal fats: limited. Margarine is allowed in a small amount.

Drinks: weak tea or coffee with milk, fresh juices, rosehip broths, compotes,jelly, fruit drinks. Kvass and carbonated drinks-limited.

If possible, it is better to exclude alcoholic beverages altogether.

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For a sample menu for the elderly, see the Appendix.

13. Which nation is considered the fattest in the world?

I don’t have data about the whole world, but I do have data about Europe. And the data is amazing. It turns out that the most obese people live in the UK. But we are accustomed to consider the representatives of this nation lean and fit. The Italians, the Dutch, and the French are considered the most slender, and the Germans are not far from them. These statistical calculations do not say anything about the Russians.

Which doctor should I go to to help me start losing weight under medical supervision?

It all depends on the equipment of your clinic. If your clinic has an endocrinologist, then you can start the examination first, and then the treatment with him. You can contact a nutritionist. But both should offer you a series of tests. To donate blood to determine the concentration of leptin in the blood serum (the hormone of obesity), to determine the level of sex hormones, to determine food intolerance, to undergo instrumental studies (for example, ultrasound of organs and systems). The fastest test is to determine the level of sugar in the capillary blood. It is carried out using modern test systems-you will get the result immediately.