20 Things You Didn't Know About...
Hunger
Get the
skinny on why tummies rumble and how we might feed the world.
1. How to alleviate world hunger? The United Nations suggests entomophagy, or eating beetles, wasps and worms, as a partial solution. Pass the cicada stuffing.
2. Two billion people worldwide already
rely on bugs for protein. One serving of caterpillar has more protein than a
serving of beef.
3. Better than relying on the flesh of
your traveling companions, like the survivors of a 1972 plane crash in the
Andes. They ate the frozen bodies of their families and friends.
4. Hunger’s pangs don’t take long to kick
in. Go a few hours without food, and grumbling ensues as continuous waves of
muscle movement release pockets of gas in the intestines.
5. Eventually you start to burn fatty
acids instead of glucose for fuel. And a few days into a fast, your body starts
to feed on its own proteins. So, yes, your stomach will eat itself
6. Without calories, your body will no
longer be able to produce enough glucose for your big brain (and it needs a lot
— about the daily equivalent of the sugar found in three cans of soda). Instead
of shutting down, it resorts to using ketone, a fatty acid derivative.
7. Early humans’ ability to switch to
another staple in this way may be what allowed us to outlast other primate
species.
8. The discomfort and weakness that mark
this stage of hunger is nothing compared with kwashiorkor, extreme malnutrition
that causes a distended belly and swelling of the liver. But the No. 1 cause of
death in people who are starving is heart failure due to extreme tissue and
organ damage.
9. Nearly 1 billion people will go to bed
hungry tonight, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development. And
200 million of them will be children. Lack of vitamins and nutrients,
especially in a child’s first year, can affect brain growth and intelligence.
10. Some studies have found that iron
deficiency, another consequence of malnutrition, may drive anemics to eat clay
and soil.
11. Nearly 30 percent of pregnant women
crave nonfood items, an eating disorder called pica — from the Latin word for
magpie, a bird known to eat anything.
12. Studies have traced cravings for
high-calorie meals back to caveman days, when hunters and gatherers needed to
store energy between unpredictable mealtimes. Now our cravings for fatty and
sugary foods, which release chemicals that can trigger mild euphoria, spur
obesity and diabetes.
13. Refined carbs can make you hungrier by
interfering with messages the digestive system sends to the brain to signal
it’s time to put down the doughnut.
14. A 2004 brain-imaging study revealed
that even thinking about a favorite food triggered release of dopamine, a
feel-good hormone also produced during sex and drug use.
15. Food for thought: A 2007 study found
that women who tried to quit thinking about chocolate ended up eating 50 percent
more than those who were encouraged to talk about their cravings.
16. Suppressing hunger or appetite,
normally the job of a hormone called leptin, is a multibillion-dollar industry
in the U.S.
17. New research indicates that people
carrying the obesity gene FTO keep pumping out the hormone ghrelin, which tells
the brain to eat again.
18. But some of the highest levels of
ghrelin have been observed in anorexia patients.
19. A body can hold out only for so long.
In the early 1980s, 10 fasting imprisoned members of the Irish Republican and
Irish National Liberation armies lasted 46 to 73 days before dying of
starvation.
20. On the other hand, a
little hunger may go a long way. Studies in rodents show reducing daily calorie
intake by 30 percent can lower risk for cancer and Alzheimer’s disease and
increase longevity. So much for an appetite for life.
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