Why do you feel hungry after eating?
Do you feel hungry after eating? Do you just walk to the kitchen to pick up something to munch? Do you randomly feel like eating something from the fridge? If yes, you need to read this article.
Carbs are the culprit
A diet heavy with carbs gets digested quickly. So when the food is digested, you will feel hungry almost immediately. Lack of fibre in refined carbs also speeds up digestion.
Another issue with carbs is that almost all refined carbs are converted to sugar and absorbed into the blood stream as glucose. Once the blood sugar levels in your blood spikes, the pancreas release large amount of insulin to clear off the excess sugar. This rapid spike and subsequent fall in blood sugar levels leads to depression, agitation, anxiety, restlessness and the most important of all, lack of energy. After that, it is time to feel hungry again.
Why are carbohydrates digested so quickly? Because it is made of sugars and sugars are toxic. Body has to get rid of toxins immediately. Large amount of sugar in your blood is going to give you all sorts of problems. So the body works hard to get rid of excess sugar from your blood and keep glucose levels under control.
Unfortunately today we are consuming too much carbs in our regular meals.
Your brain is leading you to disaster
While under stress, if you reach out to food as your saviour, your brain remembers you happiness moment. Most of this soul food is carbs and sugars. Junk food, desserts, sweets, street foods, shakes, fried foods, processed foods pastries, all the food which we remember is because of the happy chemicals like dopamine. Once addicted, stress makes you crave for more.
Unfortunately the brain is the only dumbest smart organ in the body. It will work hard to provide you with happiness no matter what the cost. In the quest for happiness, the brain will lead you anywhere.
Eating food having less nutrient
There are lots of foods which are sold in restaurants or even prepared at home which do not contain much nutrients. Most of Indian street food is high on taste and flavours but have almost no nutrients present. Some time we eat a lot of food like in many places we see people taking chicken curry which has a couple of pieces of chicken and lots of curry. This is accompanied by one large garlic naan. That is lots of food without much nutrient. A nutrient deficient body carves for more food. Minerals like potassium and magnesium make you feel full and satisfied.
Low fat diet
Most of the times you will be recommended low fat, low calorie diet. But the doctors will forget to add that it has to low carb and low sugar. So while you aim at calorie deficit by eating lean meat and lean protein, you will not feel full unless you consume fats. Red meat, ghee, cheese, fish oils, all are healthy fats and digest slowly. This allows you to remain full for longer.
Other factors
Some other minor factors which also play a role. Avoid binge eating. Bingeing is described as the tendency to eat large amount of food in a short time. Grazing is the tendency to constantly eat throughout the day and sometimes late into the night. Problems in the digestive system will also make you feel hungry after a meal, because the nutrients are not reaching the body.
How to fix hunger after meals?
Years of eating carbs and sugars and the absence of nutrient rich food makes us feel hungry all the time. Combined with insulin resistance we have too much of insulin and glucose in our blood stream. Depending on what stage we are, immediate reversal is only possible if you cut down the number of meals in the day to two or three. Low carb and low sugar diet also known as keto diet helps a lot in taking care of insulin resistance. Consuming fat during meal will ensure longer period of fasting. Intermittent fasting is the sure shot way to fix hunger after meals.
