Differentiating "hungers"

Learning to differentiate “hungers” can be a helpful step in improving your relationship with food.

But learning to pay more attention to how your body feels can be tough! Many people have spent a long time shutting off or paying very little attention to their internal cues. Some people have interoceptive and sensory processing differences that affect their ability to sense, identify and differentiate “hungers” (this might be particularly relevant for ND people). Some people’s “hungers” are too distorted by malnutrition, medication or other internal stimuli to do significant work on this topic at the moment.

If this kind of work is right for you however, becoming mindfully curious of your different “hungers”, decoding what your body might be trying to tell you and learning to respond to those cues accordingly can be a game changer.

Stomach hunger

You're physically hungry for nourishment. You may feel a hollowness, a gnawing or a rumbling in your stomach. This may be paired with reduced concentration, feeling a drop in energy and thinking more about food. If you feel unwell, dizzy, weak or have a headache it has gone on too long!

Perhaps if you've started eating already it may feel like there is a little something in there but you haven't quite reached that comfortable level of satiety.

Heart hunger

You have a sense of unmet "want" or "need". It can feel like a different kind of gnawing, perhaps closer to anxiety or the desire for comfort.

Gaining comfort from food is a normal human thing BTW.

Heart hunger may show up when your body isn't necessarily needing more energy & nutrients, but you still feel a central drive to eat. It can be your body's way of trying to meet conscious or unconscious needs.

Tell tale signs of heart hunger are finding yourself going from one food to another, never quite "hitting the spot", or eating until "numb".

Mouth hunger

Mouth hunger can feel similar to heart hunger in that you may be able to determine that it's not "stomach hunger" and there is a sense of seeking something.

Mouth hunger is often sensory based - seeking something crunchy, fragrant, salty, heavy, creamy, sweet, spicy, rich, fresh, frozen etc

Mouth hunger is also a normal human experience, but when it feels constant, intense or difficult to satiate it can be worth exploring its intersection with unmet sensory and emotional needs.

Can you recall experiencing these different “hungers” and what each of them felt like for you?