HUNGER
Despite our personal familiarity with hunger, it is an extremely complex phenomenon. It is not just an empty stomach that causes that nagging feeling. To simplify things, we need to look at a number of levels of control.
The ultimate decision-maker lies in the brain. The hypothalamus is the part of the brain given the tide of ‘master control’, like all good managers, the hypothalamus receives reports from various parts of the body indicating ‘fullness’ or ‘emptiness’. The latter then prompts the drive to eat. Research with flies, which are very simple organisms, shows they have a neural connection from the stomach to the hypothalamus which acts like an eating ‘thermostat’. As the stomach becomes distended, a message is sent to the brain to reduce eating. If this connection is severed surgically, the fly no longer has the feedback response and will eat until it literally bursts.
In humans, the connection is much more complicated. The sometimes difficult task is to sort out relevant signals and make wise decisions about food intake.
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