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0 pointsbumby3y ago0 comments

>Satiety is a mental construct.

Are you implying that there aren't physical manifestations that cause hunger? In other words, I could inject you with a suprahuman amount of ghrelin and you wouldn't feel hungry?

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mrguyorama3y ago

There are physical situations that can nudge your brain's choice to make you feel hungry or not, IME. For example, I stopped eating breakfast and lunch for two years (because, I am a colossal idiot, and knew it was stupid when I did it) and it took very little time for my body to realize "feeling hungry" at noon was a fools errand, so it quickly stopped happening. I was absolutely physically hungry, seeing as I wasn't eating larger dinners, and having been about 18 hours since I last put food in my body, but habit has a large effect on your feelings of hunger if you aren't living in the wild Savannah. If my thoughts are correct, then a possible indicator would be people with wildly different "normal" times for dinner would get hungry at those different times, ie my grandparents who eat at 4 get hungry at 4 compared to someone who normally eats at 8pm getting hungry at 8pm.

I'm unsure if that "support" for my argument exists.

bumbyOP3y ago

That fits with my current understanding. Your body's hunger response (driven in part by hormones) is complicated, and for lack of a better word it can be "habituated" to a routine. But I believe there are still very real mechanisms (like said hormones) rather than being a psychological construct. I would be willing to bet if you had blood samples, you would see very real distinctions in blood markers associated with hunger as your response changed.

s1artibartfast3y ago

This leads into the very real feedback loop between hormones and psychology. Addiction is a classic example. Both chemical and psychological addiction are real. It's basically impossible to break an addiction without tackling both