GRRR! You hear a loud growl coming from your stomach, and you look right at your clock. Time to eat!
Eating, or at least craving for a good meal is something we do every single day. Whether it’s baking your favorite chocolate chip cookies, or buying a large pizza pie, we eat more than we think we do every day. Though this is an ordeal routine for humans, have you ever thought about how your brain signals your body’s need for food?
Though signals like growling stomachs, finding the exact time to eat, and even the tasty aroma of food wafting in the air might trigger your sense of hunger, there are many more reasons for why your tongue, mind, and stomach demands food at certain times.
There are so many different types of foods, each with different types of acids, protein levels, carbohydrates, and calories. There are so many different cells and acids in foods, and sometimes we don’t even realize what is inside our food! For example, take an everyday staple: milk. Though we drink milk almost everyday, do we actually know what’s inside of it? The main contributors of milk are water, fat, proteins, lactose, minerals, enzymes, vitamins, phospholipids, and so many more gases and small substances.
With so many different types of substances we are eating each day, it might get quite overwhelming for Mr. Brain to figure out what exactly we’re eating, and when. Though you might think hunger, eating, and food are only connected with your stomach and body, get ready to have your mind blown learning about all the different connections between the brain and our bodies.
Hunger is regulated by a complex system of chemicals that send signals between your brain and your body. In other words, there are so many “hunger chemicals” in your brain that let your body know when you should eat, and when you need the food intake. The cells in the hypothalamus (a small region in your brain) communicate with cells in other parts of the brain to coordinate the release and uptake of chemicals that help regulate how much and what you eat.
When your appetite gets uplifted, your 5 senses allow the brain, as well as your body, to have a craving for a good meal. With the delicious aroma of food wafting in the air, as well as the mixture of amazing different ingredients put together to make a scrumptious meal, your brain just cannot wait to start eating! Next time when you are waiting to devour the arrangements of foods prepared for you, think about how your brain and body are sending so many chemicals and connections in order to build up that massive appetite of yours!!
Author: Vinuta Ramakrishnan