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n.

1. 1. A strong desire or need for food.
   2. The discomfort, weakness, or pain caused by a prolonged lack of food.
2. A strong desire or craving: a hunger for affection.

v., -gered, -ger·ing, -gers.

v.intr.

1. To have a need or desire for food.
2. To have a strong desire or craving.

v.tr.

To cause to experience hunger; make hungry.

[Middle English, from Old English hungor.]

A term most commonly used to refer to the subjective feelings that accompany the need for food; however, the study of this topic has come to include consideration of the overall control of food intake. More specifically, experimental work on the problem of hunger has been concerned with the sensory cues that give rise to feelings of hunger, the physiological mechanisms that determine when and how much food will be ingested, and the mechanism governing the selection of the food to be eaten.

Food consumption is basically controlled by the organism's nutritional status. Food deprivation leads to eating, and the ingestion of food materials terminates hunger sensations. The issues are to determine which physiological processes vary quantitatively with nutritional status, and to find out if these changes can be detected by the nervous system in a manner that would instigate and terminate food consumption.

Blood-sugar level, which has received more attention than any other factor, can be used as a case in point. The concentration of blood sugar does indeed vary appropriately in a general way with the periodicity of the food cycle. Detailed analyses of normal life variations of blood sugar, however, reveal that the relation between the concentration of blood sugar and hunger is not sufficiently close for this single humoral factor to be able to control hunger in any simple and direct manner. The evaluation of more local tissue utilization of food has proved a more promising approach to this problem. There is now some evidence suggesting that the status of the liver is pivotal in the control of feeding. Depletion of liver glycogen stimulates feeding; its repletion terminates feeding in rats and rabbits. See also Carbohydrate metabolism; Liver.

Many stimuli that terminate feeding have been identified. Eating in food-deprived animals is inhibited by the reduction of either cellular water or of plasma fluid. It is also reduced by gastric distension and by infusing nutrients into the intestine and into the systemic, especially venous hepatic, circulation. Satiation produced by nutrient absorption from the intestine may be mediated, in part, by the gut hormone cholecystokinin. It is likely that cholecystokinin is effective because it reduces the rate at which food passes through the stomach. The previously held notions of discrete neural centers for the onset and termination of feeding have been abandoned, as the complexity of the feeding act and its corresponding neural complexity have become more widely appreciated.

Deprivation of certain, specific food substances precipitates an increased appetite for the needed substance. This so-called specific hunger behavior has been demonstrated experimentally with many substances, such as salt, calcium, fats, proteins, and certain vitamins in children and in the lower animals studied. It is now clear that only the hunger for salt in salt-deprived animals appears before the animal has learned about the beneficial consequences of salt ingestion. Specific hungers for other minerals, proteins, and vitamins appear only gradually and reflect the animal's learning that certain foods are no longer beneficial and, in fact, may be harmful.

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Hunger can have a variety of meanings. For example, to a nutritionist it may be used to describe starvation resulting from a lack of food. However, to most of us hunger refers to the sensations we feel when we need food, such as an aching, growling stomach, weakness, or a grumpy mood. Indeed, the Oxford English Dictionary defines hunger as ‘The uneasy or painful sensation caused by want of food.’ This sensation generally motivates an individual to find and to consume food.

Let us start our consideration of hunger with how it feels. Descriptions of hunger come from written reports consisting of checklists of particular sensations, or line scales on which the degree of a sensation is marked. Open-ended verbal reports in which the experience of hunger is described freely are of interest but difficult to quantify. Sometimes the emphasis has been on where in the body an individual experiences hunger. All of these different types of assessments agree that gastric sensations, such as an aching or growling stomach, are most commonly associated with hunger. Other sensations found to occur less frequently are weakness, headaches, pain, dizziness, anxiety, loss of concentration, food craving, thoughts of food, watering of the mouth, discomfort, dry mouth, nausea, and thirst. Large individual differences are seen in both the degree to which hunger is experienced and the way it is perceived. However, in general, when hunger is reported over the entire day it is seen to follow a cyclical pattern in which it rises gradually before meals and falls rapidly as eating proceeds.

An important issue is whether reported hunger can be used to infer how much a person would eat in a given situation. Investigators have found that in some situations hunger does correlate well with food intake, but often it does not. For example, regardless of how hungry someone feels, the amount consumed in a meal can be affected by the palatability, variety, and amount of food offered. The eating environment may also influence intake, in that people often eat more when they are with a group of friends than when eating alone.

Much research has been directed at discovering the role of hunger in the regulation of food intake and food selection. Since hunger is a subjective sensation, strictly speaking it can only be studied in humans. However, experimental animals, particularly laboratory rats, are often used in studies of hunger and the regulation of food intake. Thus, hunger has been defined in ways that do not rely on reports of subjective sensations. Hunger in animals is inferred and measured by the amount eaten. So, for example, if the time since the last meal affects the amount consumed, we assume that this is because food deprivation increases hunger. The assumption in both experimental animals and humans is that, when there is a need for food, the body senses this through a variety of physiological mechanisms, including changes in blood glucose and insulin, and metabolic signals from the liver, all of which are integrated by the brain. When the brain detects that the body needs fuel, a state of hunger develops and the animal eats an amount appropriate to reduce the hunger and reverse the deficit.

While hunger may relate to the physiological signals indicating the body's need for food, learning and environmental influences can influence it as well. A newborn baby apparently experiences hunger in response to cues signalling a need for food, and cries to be fed regularly every few hours. Gradually, through learning, this behaviour changes so that it conforms to imposed meal times. That these times vary widely between cultures — for example, dinner is eaten early in the evening in Norway and late at night in Spain — illustrates the impact of learning on the cyclical pattern of hunger over the day. Studies also indicate that people learn the types and amounts of food required to satisfy their hunger.

Sometimes hunger and food intake are unrelated to the body's need for food. For example, when we are bored or nervous, we may not feel hungry but will nevertheless eat to pass the time or to calm ourselves. Such inappropriate eating can become problematic and contribute to the development of obesity. Some behaviour therapies for obesity emphasize learning to recognize hunger sensations and to eat in response to them. However, some obese individuals complain that they never experience hunger. A critical question which has not yet been clearly answered is whether some overweight individuals have impairments in physiological systems that normally signal hunger.

It is also important to determine whether low food intake, or anorexia, can be due to impaired or reduced hunger in response to physiological needs. For example, hunger may be reduced in chronically ill patients and is reported to be low in individuals with anorexia nervosa. The challenge to their carers is how to induce them to eat. They may need to stimulate ‘appetite’ rather than hunger. While hunger refers to the need to eat, appetite relates to the pleasure of eating. It is appetite that steers us to particular foods. While hunger and appetite are often experienced together, when we are hungry and want a particular food, appetites for foods can occur in the absence of hunger. Thus, we may have an appetite for chocolate or ice cream at the end of a large meal when we are no longer hungry.

Like many other bodily systems, those underlying hunger and the regulation of food intake change with age. Many elderly people do not eat enough to maintain their body weight. While the low food intake may be due in part to poor appetite associated with decreased ability to smell and taste food, there are also changes in hunger. Older individuals not only may report decreased hunger, but studies show that many do not adjust intake appropriately to changes in bodily needs.

Studies of hunger are important clinically in that they may suggest an abnormality of physiological systems related to the detection of signals from normal metabolism of ingested food. Understanding both the biological and behavioural foundations of hunger may help to suggest therapies for inappropriate food intake. For example, some pharmacological agents can reduce both hunger and food intake, which is helpful in the treatment of obesity. When food intake is inappropriately low, treatment may involve stimulating appetite, for example, by increasing the variety and palatability of the available foods, which could increase food intake even when hunger sensations are depressed.

The sensation of hunger links our bodily needs to behavioural food seeking and ingestion. In the wild, animals would be unlikely to survive if the sensation of hunger were abnormal. However, in humans, food is often abundant and culture dictates when and how much should be consumed, so the sensation of hunger has become less crucial for survival. Nevertheless, the high incidence of disorders of body weight indicates that relying on these environmental cues rather than hunger to guide food intake is not an optimal strategy.

— Barbara J. Rolls

Bibliography

• Bell, E. A. and Rolls, B. J. (2001). Regulation of energy intake: Factors contributing to obesity. In: Present Knowledge in Nutrition, 8th Edition. Eds B. Bowman and R. Russell. ILSI Press, Washington, D. C., pp. 31-40.
• Rolls, B. and Barnett, R. A. (2000). The Volumetrics Weight-Control Plan: Feel Full on Fewer Calories. HarperCollins Publishers, New York

See also eating; eating disorders; obesity.

A need for food that is usually experienced as an unpleasant sensation. Hunger develops under conditions of food deprivation and the physiological need for nutrients. It may also be provoked by psychological factors. A child who eats lunch regularly at midday will probably feel hungry if the meal is delayed by an hour, even if there is no real physiological need.

Hunger is usually non-specific: the desire is to satisfy the need for energy, and most foods will do. However, under some circumstances of vitamin or mineral deficiency (especially salt deficiency) hunger may be very specific and result in a search for a particular food (this may explain some of the peculiar feeding behaviours of pregnant women).

Subjectively, the sensation of hunger appears to be localized in the stomach, appearing and disappearing as the stomach empties and is refilled. In the nineteenth century a North American hunter, Alexis St. Martin, suffered a gunshot wound to his side which left a hole (fistula) leading into his stomach. The fistula enabled his physician to perform some remarkable experiments, one of which demonstrated that food placed directly in the stomach reduced hunger sensations. However, subsequent experiments have shown that people given food directly in the stomach develop a strong desire to taste, chew, and swallow food. Much to the relief of restauranteurs, the mere physical presence of food in the stomach is not as satisfying as the complete process of eating!

Hunger, it seems, cannot be explained by purely local effects in the stomach and mouth. There is good evidence that the brain contains hunger mechanisms. Receptors in the brain are believed to monitor the availability of glucose for use by cells. As glucose becomes less available, hunger sensations develop. Animal experiments indicate that centres in the hypothalamus (a structure at the base of the brain) play a role in eating behaviours: one centre (the feeding or hunger centre) seems to be responsible for initiating eating, the other (the satiety centre) for stopping. However, it is not clear how important these centres are in determining feeding behaviour in people who have free access to food.

Clearly, hunger is a complex sensation. Whatever mechanism is responsible for hunger, the desire for food may become so intense that it dominates every thought and action. Compare appetite.

noun

1. A desire for food or drink: appetite, stomach, taste, thirst. See desire.
2. A strong wanting of what promises enjoyment or pleasure: appetence, appetency, appetite, craving, desire, itch, longing, lust, thirst, wish, yearning, yen. See desire.

verb

To have a greedy, obsessive desire: crave, itch, lust, thirst. See desire.

n

Definition: appetite for food, other desire
Antonyms: aversion, satiation, satisfaction

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A craving, as for food. A localized subjective sensation, assumed to occur in animals, caused by emptiness and a resulting hypermotility of the stomach.

• h. hollow — paralumbar fossa in ruminants.

IN BRIEF: A great desire for food. Also: A great need for food.

The hikers experienced great hunger and thirst after they got lost in the mountains.

Quotes:

"Hunger is not only the best cook, but also the best physician." - Source Unknown

"Hunger is the best sauce." - Italian Proverb

"There is hunger for ordinary bread, and there is hunger for love, for kindness, for thoughtfulness; and this is the great poverty that makes people suffer so much." - Mother Teresa

"Wanting something is not enough. You must hunger for it. Your motivation must be absolutely compelling in order to overcome the obstacles that will invariably come your way." - Les Brown

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - sult, hunger, begær, trang
v. intr. - sulte, hungre
v. tr. - sulte, hungre

idioms:

• hunger strike    sultestrejke

Nederlands (Dutch)
honger, eetlust, hongersnood

Français (French)
n. - faim, famine, (fig) désir ardent (de)
v. intr. - (fig) avoir faim de
v. tr. - soumettre à la famine, manquer de nourriture

idioms:

• hunger strike    grève de la faim

Deutsch (German)
n. - Hunger, Hungersnot
v. - Hunger haben, hungern, aushungern, hungern nach (Macht usw.)

idioms:

• hunger strike    Hungerstreik

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - πείνα, λιγούρα, (μτφ.) δίψα, λαχτάρα, σφοδρή επιθυμία

idioms:

• hunger strike    απεργία πείνας

Italiano (Italian)
fame

idioms:

• hunger strike    sciopero della fame

Português (Portuguese)
n. - fome (f), desejo (m)

idioms:

• hunger strike    greve (f) de fome

Русский (Russian)
голод

idioms:

• hunger strike    голодовка

Español (Spanish)
n. - hambre, hambruna
v. intr. - tener hambre, estar hambriento, ansiar, anhelar
v. tr. - hacer pasar hambre

idioms:

• hunger strike    huelga de hambre

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - hunger (äv. bildl.), längtan

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
饿, 饥饿, 渴望, 饥荒, 挨饿, 使挨饿

idioms:

• hunger strike    绝食抗议

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 餓, 饑餓, 渴望, 饑荒
v. intr. - 挨餓, 渴望
v. tr. - 使挨餓

idioms:

• hunger strike    絕食抗議

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 굶주림, 갈망
v. intr. - 굶주리다, 갈망하다
v. tr. - 굶주리게 하다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 飢え, 飢餓, 空腹, 熱望, 渇望
v. - 飢える, 渇望する

idioms:

• hunger strike    ハンガーストライキ

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) جوع, سغب, توق, اشتهاء‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮רעב, תאווה‬
v. intr. - ‮השתוקק, רעב‬
v. tr. - ‮הרעיב‬

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