Hunger pains may make you uncomfortable, but they're not harmful and don't have any harmful side effects. Hunger pains can lead to embarrassment from a growling stomach and can also lead to overeating if you eat to stop them without thinking through your food choices. Hunger pains have a normal physiological cause and rarely indicate a serious problem.
Embarrassing Sounds
Hunger pains can cause loud and sometimes embarrassing noises called borborygmi to emanate from your stomach. Borborygmi related to hunger originate in the stomach, which contract in response to migrating myoelectric complexes, or MMCs, in your nervous system, professor Mark Andrews explains on Scientific American. The growling produced by contractions in the stomach are heard more readily when your stomach is empty, because it doesn't contain anything to muffle the noise. Although loud stomach rumbling can cause embarrassment, it doesn't cause any physical harm.
Making Bad Food Choices
When you feel hunger pains, your first thought may be to eat something -- anything, actually -- that's at hand to decrease the discomfort of being "hungry." This can lead to making poor food choices, which can lead to poor health and possible weight gain. To reduce hunger pains between meals, add a little fat to your meals, which digests more slowly and will keep you feeling full for longer. When you start a new diet, expect hunger pains, which can occur whenever you change your eating habits. Carry snacks with you that fit into your diet so you have something to nosh whenever hunger pains attack.
Overeating
When your stomach becomes accustomed to a certain amount of food, you may have hunger pains when you don't give it that same amount -- even if you don't need that much food. While it's hard to do, don't take hunger pains as a cue to eat, the University of Maryland Medical Center suggests. It's hard to ignore the hunger sensations on a diet, but mind over matter will tell you you've already had enough to eat, as long as you're honest about your intake. As your stomach shrinks, you experience a decrease in hunger pains.
Considerations
Hunger pains have less to do with actual hunger and more to do with cultural and learned expectations and learned behavior, according to retired psychology professor C. George Boeree. If you find yourself eating in response to them, carry foods with you that fit into your diet plan and that will stop the embarrassing sounds as well.
References
- "Scientific American"; Why Does Your Stomach Growl When You Are Hungry?; Mark Andrews; January 2002
- Wishard Health Services; How to Cure the Desire for Food and Still Lose Weight; Todd Harper
- University of Maryland Medical Center; Heart-Healthy Diet -- Lifestyle Changes; May 2009
- General Psychology; Hunger and Eating Disorders; C. George Boeree
