Five reasons why you are always hungry

If you are constantly nibbling on something, you might be hungry all the time. Or you might have become carb dependent for energy.

Reason No 5 – Dehydration and Thirst

Chances are that if you are not drinking sufficient water, your body will start looking for water from other food sources. Most of the times, you can kill the hunger switch by drinking water. But here is a word of caution.

Too much consumption of water will interfere with the thirst mechanism of the body. It will also drain your body of electrolytes. Best indicator of hydration levels is the color of urine. Too light color means you have consumed lot of water and the body is getting rid of it while dark yellow color means you need more water.

Also remember that you should not have water during meals otherwise that might interfere with food digestion by stomach acids.

Reason No 4 – Hormonal Imbalance

This one is plain maths. The moment you eat something, it triggers the release of insulin hormone in the body. This hormone is the signal to stop fat burning because now the energy source is available in the form of food.

Most Indians begin their day with a sip of chai. They also “wrongly” believe that the active ingredient which wakes up the body is the tea leaves. A cup of chai in India is actually a concentrated dose of carbs in the form of sugar and milk which is added. Indians these days only consume full cream buffalo milk.

In ancient India, the first meal was late in the morning, we now have gotten into bed tea concept which is consumed at 6 am and some even take a few other snacks with bed tea like toasts, cookies, biscuits or even fresh fruit juice. As soon as that is consumed, the insulin hormone stops fat burning. It also breaks your fast which you began the previous day.

Reason No 3 – Carbs make you feel hungry

One look around us we find abundance of food. In the 70s and 80s after dinner the kitchen was closed. If the kids got hungry before going to bed, mothers used to say that you should have had sufficient food during dinner. But today we have food stocked in the house. There is always something to nibble on.

Come out of the house and you will find street food at every corner. All that cheap food is basically carb heavy.

But why does eating carbs make you feel hungry. Carbs and sugars digest quickly in the stomach and is converted to glucose. That is the most ready source of energy. As the blood glucose level increases, the body tries to get rid of excess glucose to normalize the blood sugar level. Now once the blood sugar level dips, we need more glucose for energy production. That makes my feel hungry or induces the feeling of hunger.

Reason No 2 – Lack of fiber (and gut bacteria) in modern diet

Fiber is the last piece in the food chain. Gut bacteria is the signal to the brain that body has got all the nutrients that it needs. The key difference to understand here is that even if your stomach is full of food, the off switch to hunger is only when the necessary nutrients have reached the body. That signaling system ends with the large intestine where the gut bacteria reside.

Now here is the problem. A carb heavy meal or fast food or processed food has every little fiber. Also gut bacteria is only present in freshly cooked food. This is one of the main reason why you keep feeling hungry after every meal.

Reason No 1 – Lack of nutrition

In the good old days we used to talk about a whole meal. Now that concept has been replaced by fast food and ultra processed food. Refined oil and partially hydrogenated vegetable oil has become the primary means of cooking in India. Refined oils have images of heart and arm muscles on it which misleads people to believe that it is healthy and good for the heart. While partially hydrogenated vegetable oil is given the name vanaspati to denote that it has come from natural sources and is super healthy. It is also sold in lieu of desi ghee since it looks exactly similar. Food cooked in refined oil and partially hydrogenated vegetable oil tastes better and has a longer shelf life. That is a bonanza for restaurant owners and fast food chain.

These foods hardly have any nutrition in it. So we keep eating to achieve the nutrition target of our body for the day. That my friend is the number one reason for you to keep feeling hungry all the time.