麻豆影院

Parsing seven different kinds of hunger, an April 26 Let鈥檚 CU Well presentation to discuss honoring your hunger and emotions with kindness

Kathleen Farrell wants to talk about your relationship.

Specifically, your relationship with food.听

Farrell is a registered dietitian nutritionist who works at the Clinical Translation Research Center (CTRC) as a research dietitian, but for about six years she worked as a clinical dietitian for Wardenburg Student Health Center at the 麻豆影院. In that time, she came to understand that many students鈥攁nd many people in general鈥攈ave a complicated relationship with food.

While at Wardenburg, Farrell created a handout called the Hunger Tree. She started to ask students: What are you really hungry for? She says听it鈥檚听key to know听what听to eat, but just as important to know听why听you are eating.听

For some,听food can听be a subject loaded with meaning and emotion. To some degree, everyone fuels themselves differently鈥攑hysically, and emotionally.听Thus, Farrell uses her hunger tree to get a better understanding of why someone is eating鈥攅motionally versus for a physiological reason. Hunger can be complicated,听Farrell says, partly because there are actually seven different types of hunger:听

1. Stomach hunger鈥攁ctual physical hunger
2. Mouth hunger鈥攁 desire for the taste of a certain food
3. Eye hunger鈥攄esiring a food based on its appearance
4. Nose hunger鈥攄esiring a certain food based on its smell
5. Mind hunger鈥攚hat a person鈥檚 mind is telling them about a food
6. Heart hunger鈥攁 desire for foods associated with emotions
7. Cellular hunger鈥攚hen the body indicates it has need for a nutrient

While it can be acceptable to eat something in response to any type of hunger, Farrell says it can be valuable to understand the underlying reason for the desire.

Farrell uses this example: In the case of heart hunger, what the person might really desire is not food but a hug from a loved one. In that case, the person may be using food as a stand-in for what is really needed because they are 鈥渆motionally hungry.鈥�

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Making peace with food

For Farrell, a big part of her focus is helping people make peace with food.听

One place where inner conflict over food can arise in individuals is from imposition of a diet that is overly restrictive, which Farrell says can lead to intense feelings of deprivation that build into uncontrollable cravings and sometimes听binge-eating.

鈥淲anting to lose some weight鈥攖hat hunger for change鈥攊s totally fine,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut if it comes to where you鈥檙e not giving yourself permission to enjoy food in a healthy way, that can lead to problems.鈥�

Instead, Farrell says she encourages students to moderate themselves. For example, if someone says they love ice cream but are not sure if they should have some, Farrell says she would tell them, 鈥淓njoy it. Have a bowl of ice cream but have a smaller portion size. Maybe try to enhance it by putting some blueberries or almonds on it.鈥�

Meanwhile, to avoid over-eating, Farrell advises people to 鈥渇eel their fullness.鈥� That means listening for internal body signals that indicate fullness, observing signs of being comfortably full, and pausing in the middle of eating to ask how the food tastes and to determine one鈥檚 current fullness level.

Farrell will share additional views on food and what it means to be at peace with food during her upcoming seminar,听Honor Your Hunger and Emotions with Kindness.听This event is scheduled as a Zoom presentation starting at noon on Wednesday, April 26. The event is free, but听registration is required at this link.

The event is part of the听Let鈥檚 CU Well听speaker series for CU staff, students and the general public. The series is part of听Be Well, an initiative launched by the College of Arts and Sciences to promote more healthful lifestyle choices.

Don鈥檛 expect Farrell to talk at length about dieting in her presentation, because she believes people are better served by focusing on 鈥渆ating mindfully鈥� (paying attention to what they are eating) rather than focusing strictly on their caloric intake.听

鈥淲hen I talk about honoring your hunger with kindness, part of what I mean is not being too hard on yourself,鈥� she says. 鈥淎 lot of times, we might set a goal for ourselves, but we might fall short. And it鈥檚 important just being able to say, 鈥業 wasn鈥檛 able to meet my goal for the day but it鈥檚 OK.鈥�

鈥淲e do not need to strive for perfection. Perfection is just too hard to maintain. Instead, progress is what I look for. It is really about sustainability.鈥�