Do you sometimes have an overwhelming desire to eat that is so intense you can almost taste the food? Food cravings and excessive appetite make food intake difficult to control and this often leads to obesity.
Food craving is a signal your body sends to tell you that you are lacking certain nutrients while appetite serves to regulate adequate food intake to maintain your body’s daily metabolic needs.
Certain factors influence food intake, such as stomach distension, hormones and energy substances in the blood, as well as eating habits and even the sight of palatable food.
Regulating appetite
There are three separate components encompassing appetite: hunger, satiation and satiety. Your appetite stems from hunger, where you experience sensations that initiate food intake. That is why you respond to your stomach’s “rumbling” by eating. As you eat, hunger subsides while satiation or the feeling of fullness and sensation of satisfaction dominates progressively. You only stop eating when satiation overrides hunger. Thus, for a period of time you do not take in food. This happens between meals when the sensation of satiety dominates.
So to regulate appetite, one approach is by satiation or increasing the sense of fullness. This way, there is reduced calorie intake that can lead to weight loss or prevent obesity.
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