Any successful, long term nutrition plan must consider hunger. Most diet pills available are appetite suppressants, for the reason that hunger is the simple, yet powerful driving force behind most diet failure. Hunger is complex; involving psychological factors; nerve firing and brain mapping habits, as well as physiological factors like hormone production and suppression – which can be influenced and even damaged by the quality of foods we eat. Hunger is also influenced by physical factors; the size of an individuals stomach or the amounts of nutrients available either due the quality of foods ingested, or the quantity of nutrients that are able to pass from the stomach and intestines, into the blood where they can then be transported to other body tissues where they are needed. Physical factors too, can be influenced and damaged by the quality and quantity of foods we eat.

In humans hunger is powerful yet can be somewhat elusive as eating becomes habitual, instigated by triggers like emotional stress, boredom, or certain specific behaviors like watching TV, or even specific times of the day. Consider how many people you know that have a 3pm office snack, or eat breakfast at exactly 7:30am every day, whether or not they are actually consciously hungry. Should you ask them why they were eating, they’d probably say they were hungry, a response they give as an afterthought when initially there was no thoughts at all in their actions. The reality is, they are eating because it is their habit to eat at this time. Humans sometimes have hunger as a habit, instigated by the cue of a specific time, or specific activity, or specific emotion. We are the only known mammals that do this.

Controlling hunger is equally complex as in addition to the above; humans will feel hunger as a result of a craving for a certain, previously experienced food. A craving is a strong urge or powerful desire to eat something, whether or not it’s instigated by hunger. The pure pleasure of eating, particularly in times when life is feeling less pleasurable for some people, causes cravings and strong urges to eat, and usually it’s the foods that give us the most pleasure and are the least healthy for us that cause these craving. The pleasure of eating to the displeasure of life can become what the yin is to the yang, in Chinese philosophy. Does eating a tub of ice cream to sweeten and numb the heartbreak sound familiar to you?

We attempt to control hunger through flexibility with flexible dieting. We are constantly aiming for progress, and not perfection. The progress we aim for is things like eating more whole, nutrient dense foods that will feed our bodies what they need to function efficiently, and replacing habits that do not serve us well for habits that feed both our hunger and our health. With flexibility, we allow for that tub of ice cream, if and when life happens and emotions call for it and then we get back on track when we are ready because being consistent is more important than being perfect.