LifestyleWellbeingIrritable and snappy just before lunch? Its not just in your head needing a snack can severely affect your mood, says Ellen Manning
Tuesday, 15th October 2019, 14:45 pm
Most of us have experienced the feeling. You havent eaten, youre irritable, grumpy and cant concentrate. Youre hangry.
Theres science behind it, too. Last year, researchers at the University of Guelph in Canada discovered that feeling angry when youre hungry is due to a sudden drop in glucose levels, which can have a lasting effect on your mood. They studied the impact of such a sharp drop on the emotional behaviour of rats.
One group of rats was injected with a glucose metabolism blocker and put in a specific chamber. Another group was injected with water and put in a different chamber. When the rats were later given the choice of which chamber to go back into, most avoided the one where they had suffered the drop in glucose, or suffered hypoglycaemia. This suggests they recognise that this caused them stress and anxiety, say the researchers.
Hunger and anger can look the same in the brain
Some of the chemical signals that are released when were hungry are the same as when we are angry, explains Sophie Medlin, consultant dietitian and director of CityDietitians. This means that the same pathways in our brains are triggered when were hungry as when were angry, making the two feelings difficult to distinguish between. When our blood sugars drop, these signals are released and we become motivated to find food.
However, Kristen Lindquist, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of North Carolina, who carried out research into hanger with PhD candidate Jennifer MacCormack, says its a bit more complicated than this. People commonly confuse body states with emotions, such as a rapidly beating heart for anxiety, feelings of hunger for anger, she says.
Lindquist says her research with MacCormack looked at the way context can influence how people interpret those hunger pangs, and what happens to make them manifest themselves as hanger.
Why hanger happens
Hanger occurs when were feeling the sensations associated with being hungry unpleasantness, high energy, a clenched stomach but we are in a context associated with anger. For example, someone criticises us or violates a norm, she says. In those cases, we interpret our bodily feelings as hunger instead of anger. Critically, this doesnt happen just any time youre hungry. The context needs to be right. Our findings show that if youre in a positive or neutral environment you wont feel hanger. You need to have the opportunity to infer that your body state is about anger.
So, if you are suffering from hanger, what actually happens to you? According to Geeta Sidhu-Robb, nutritionist and founder of health foods brand Nosh Detox, hanger can sap our productivity and affect our decision-making and perception of risk as well as our mood.
Our bodies release hormones when we are hungry. These in turn lead to the cravings that we find all too familiar, she says. However, when we are not able to sate our bodys needs, we become fatigued, less enthused and irritable.
Snappy and irritable
It also affects the way we interact, she adds. Hunger makes us snappy and irritable and actually more desperate. In a working environment it is becoming ever more important to sustain healthy professional relationships with colleagues and clients. If you arent feeling yourself, this isnt going to be the case as you take it out on those nearest to you.
There is an unlucky portion of society that is more likely to suffer with hanger. Our anger response is partly dictated by genetics and environmental experiences as well as by hormones, Medlin explains. Men typically release greater levels of the chemicals that trigger anger and have more of the receptors for them, but women may experience different levels of hanger as their hormones fluctuate through their menstrual cycle.
So how do you combat hanger? Sidhu-Robb says there are fixes that can help alleviate symptoms. These include eating fruit to keep cravings at bay as well as drinking water. A final fix is setting a regular eating schedule. Random snacking can confuse our brains into producing hunger hormones irregularly. The body loves rituals and regularity. The more you offer that the happier you and your body will be.
Don't go too long between meals
Medlin agrees, suggesting that people plan meals and snacks that stabilise blood sugars and try to not go too long in between meals. She suggests high-fibre, high-protein foods, as well as lots of vegetables and in general, keeping blood sugars stable.
There is arguably a longer-term benefit to keeping things a bit more stable when it comes to your food. The researchers who carried out tests on rats believed that missing meals regularly could affect your overall mood. PhD student Thomas Horman, who led that study, said poor mood and poor eating could become a vicious cycle.
The general effect of food on our mood and mental health is something to which Dr Sally Bell thinks we should all pay a bit more attention. She has been a doctor for 20 years, and helps people by looking at elements of their life such as food, sleep and movement and encouraging them to make changes that could help. She runs workshops at Hampton Manor in the Midlands, where guests hear about the role food plays in mood while eating a specially designed dinner designed to illustrate some of the points.
When Im dealing with mood issues the first place I will go to is the gut, says Dr Bell. Theres really robust research now that the health of our gut bacteria, our microbiome, is very much linked to mental health issues. And we know that the health of that bacteria and the integrity of that gut lining is influenced by what we eat.
Stopping hunger turning into hanger
For Lindquist, awareness is also key helping you to deal with the way you interpret your feelings of hunger and avoid them turning intohanger.
If youre aware of your emotions, you can short-circuit hanger, perhaps because you can regulate your feelings or recognise that you just need to eat something. People can become more aware of their body sensations, the context that they are in, and how they are interpreting their feelings.
If theyre feeling frustrated while trying to complete a task at work right before lunch, they may just have low blood sugar. Dont have a tense conversation with your spouse while making dinner wait until after youve eaten something.
We know this is the case for little kids, but seem to have forgotten that hunger can make us irritable as adults, too.
Foods to avoid if youre feeling hangry
The best things to eat if youre feeling hangry
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The science behind why we really get 'hangry' before eating and how to prevent it - iNews
