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The sensation of appetite is so complex that
it has to be discussed with hunger to be fully understood. Although
appetite and hunger are closely related, they are different
and distinct from each other.
The
desire for food is appetite while hunger is the sensation caused
by fairly frequent and rhythmic contractions of the empty stomach,
thus causing a desire for food. Appetite may be a consequence
of hunger, but it does not always follow.
Studies
on man and animals have given us a scientific basis for the
conclusion that there is a selective mechanism which controls
eating, which functions through appetite or the desire for food.
Careful observations show that appetite encompasses psychic
factors and may be brought about not only by hunger.
There
can be appetite without hunger. An attractive, tasty meal may
arouse the desire to eat even after all hunger has been appeased.
We continue to eat because of the acquired liking for certain
foods and of the memory of pleasant experiences with food. Some
factors that may influence appetite are:
1)
Food of attractive color and aroma.
2)
Food attractively prepared and served.
3)
Food containing a reasonable amount of fat.
4)
Emotions, pleasant company, and general state of happiness.
The
desire for food or appetite and sensations of hunger are signals
which maintain the bodily supply of nutrients and operate for
the welfare of the individual and the race. Experts in nutrition
speak of the appetite and hunger as regulating mechanism, as
the stop and go feature indispensable for race survival. The
hunger pain develops to give us a reliable impulse for beginning
our meals and the inner feeling of satisfaction of satiety,
tells us when to stop.
Abnormal
Appetite – If a dietary is adequate in quality and quantity
of all nutriments, the healthy child will not have an abnormal
craving for sweets, especially sugar, a food of high calorie
value, but low in nutritive value. A large amount of sugar stimulates
the flow of fluid in the stomach and the resulting volume of
liquid may stop hunger contraction with the consequent loss
of appetite.
Food
likes and dislikes enter into the feeing of every family. Appetite
is not an infallible guide to good nutrition, as it is subject
to prejudice and imitation and may be altered by conditioning
or learning. Appetites vary secondarily with age, customs, temperature,
and economic status.
Food
and Allergy – Allergy is a condition of hypersensitivity to
certain substances which in the great majority of human beings
produces no ill effect. This may be caused in one individual
by a certain substance and by an entirely different one in another.
The most common allergy-producing foods are milk, eggs, and
cereals; next in order are fish, nuts, and pies.
There
are no typical symptoms in allergies as in a communicable disease,
partly because very different tissues of the body respond. Among
the many symptoms are redness and swelling of the eyes, running
of the nose, headache, asthma, such skin conditions as urticaria
and eczema and gastrointestinal disturbances as diarrhea and
colic. Apparently, there is an inherited tendency to allergy
which is not specific. |
