Appetite, by Marissa-Catherine Carrarini

How is it that if a baby is happily gulping his mother’s milk he has a healthy appetite we all admire, but if an adult was to eat an extra large bowl of food (or two) that same healthy appetite becomes something to question, something to frown upon, and even something to fear?

Appetite is the body’s way of ensuring that it has all the nutrition and energy it needs to prosper and thrive. It is an instinctive emotional and mental desire for food. Taken further it can be seen as a desire for wellness and a desire for life.

Listening to our natural appetite is fundamental to health. Our desire for food is vital to ensure that we get all the important nutrients and energy we need. An untainted appetite helps us understand what foods we should be eating and when. If we have been skimping on a vital component of our diet, a healthy appetite should ensure we won't be missing it for long.

However, in today’s society appetite is a concept so distorted that we have lost our innate understanding of it. We have forgotten that a healthy appetite is a positive sign and should be valued. Instead, in our culture that craves thinness more than it craves nourishment, we see a diminished appetite as a sign of strength and health. At the same time, we have forgotten how to listen and respond to our own appetites. No longer are we the baby suckling at our mother’s breast who knows exactly when we are full and when we are hungry again.

An appetite too small
In today’s hectic, rushed and food-obsessed society, a loss of appetite is increasingly common. We wake up in a state of grogginess, unable to think about food. We battle to work (or to take the kids to school) and then rush through all the emails and deadlines (or housework, shopping and volunteer activities) and urgent "to do lists". When we finally get home we are too tired to prepare something nourishing and resort to the quickest and fastest solution – with no real desire to feed the inner self. Whether that is a takeaway or just a fruit smoothie, we are not paying close enough attention to what the body needs.

A similar and increasingly common picture is of the body and mind so beaten by stress that extreme and forced suppression of the appetite is the only way to cope with life’s turmoil of demands and expectations. Although there is a vast difference between anorexia nervosa and these who simply don’t listen to their appetite, they are both victims of a society with a painful and confused relationship to food, and they both result in an under-nourished body.

If there are emotional reasons for a lack of appetite, then these should be dealt with first and foremost. However, there are many simple, everyday measures that can help one wake up to their natural appetite.

If you don’t want to eat at times of the day when you think you should (for instance in the morning after the long night’s fast since dinner) this may be because your stress levels are too high. Your body is already in fight-or-flight mode (as if it is running from a tiger in the wild). With such stress, the body naturally won’t want to eat.

If this is the case, some time during the day give yourself time to listen to your body. Take 10 minutes away from the computer, the children, the chores or planned social activities. You might need to switch off the TV 10 minutes earlier in the evening or plan to meet friends a little later or stop yourself from checking your emails for the seventh time.

Instead, go somewhere where you feel safe (even if it is just with your eyes closed at your desk) to focus on how you are feeling – both mentally and physically. If you are feeling a little hungry, ask yourself what your body may be needing? Is it something more substantial than your breakfast juice that gets you through the morning but doesn’t leave you feeling satisfied? Or is it for something sweet or something comforting? Whatever you want, enjoy the taste and enjoy nourishing your body.

Bitter foods are appetite-stimulating foods, so include lettuce, radicchio, rocket, artichoke, endive and dandelion greens in your diet. Alfalfa also helps stimulate the appetite. So does drinking lemon juice in warm water, so have a glass every morning and one or two during the day as well.
 
An appetite too large
On the flip side you may have a constant, raging appetite. No matter what you eat, you cannot stop. Even after a huge meal you are back at the fridge looking for your next snack. Are you are eating to fill an emotional hole or to suppress difficult emotions or stress?

Your uncontrollable appetite may also be because your body is not getting the nutrients it needs, so keeps signalling hunger. For instance, if you are not getting enough protein, the body may be asking for more food even if you feel full up. Alternatively, if your diet is high in sugar (for instance fruits and sweetners) and /or your carbohydrate intake is not balanced out with enough fat and protein, then you may be experiencing sugar cashes. A typical sugar crash feels like an extreme need for food (especially sweet food). Some people feel that if they don’t eat something sweet they may faint, be irritable or hungry.

Again, all emotional issues that surround food and eating need to be addressed. You may find benefit talking to your naturopath or to a close friend, or you may find it easier to open up to a psychologist or cognitive behavioural therapist.

On a more physical level, it is important to balance your blood sugars and make sure you are getting the right foods. Try and eat sweet things, such as fruit, with protein and fat (fruit and nuts or a smoothie made with almond milk and berries are tasty examples). Do not add too much sweetener into your food (sweet syrups should be a treat, not an everyday item) and make sure that your meals are colourful. Just eating greens (although they are nature’s superfoods) is not balanced. You need some lovely cold-pressed oils and proteins (such as nuts, flax crackers and sprouted beans) as well as some other colours (e.g. tomatoes, sweet potato and peppers) to give the meal a broader spectrum of nutrients. Also, eating meals with more colours gives the psychological impression that one is eating more. A mono-colour meal can leave you feeling unsatisfied.

A healthy appetite
A healthy appetite desires food a few times a day and feels satisfied after a healthy, balanced meal. A healthy appetite does not desire food out of boredom nor shy from food if a want for it strikes at an unusual time.

Throughout your lifetime your appetite will go up and down and it is important to embrace its ebbs and flows. Within the course of a year we will want more food at certain times than others. For example, it is normal to want lighter foods and possibly less during the summer, and more and heavier foods during the winter.

Here are some healthy appetite menu plans:

Increase your appetite with many small meals
7am Start the day with warm water and lemon juice
7.30am Fresh fruit and nuts
9am Green smoothie or nut milkshake
11am Snack of flax crackers with spread or fruit dipped in nut butter
1pm Lunch of large salad with plenty of bitter foods such as rocket and alfalfa, broccoli, seeds, avocado, sprouted chickpeas and a dressing
4pm Fresh fruit and nuts or carrot, celery and pepper sticks dipped in hummus or nut butter
7pm Dinner of flax and buckwheat pizza with tomato topping and macadamia cheese sauce, served with large salad of bitter greens

Decrease your appetite (and feel fuller for longer)
7am Glass of green juice
8am Buckwheat and soaked nut muesli with fresh fruit and almond milk
11am Snack of 2 flax crackers spread with coconut butter
1pm Lunch of large salad with kale, avocado, sunflower seeds, raw hummus and raw falafel
4pm Snack of fresh fruit dipped in seed butter
7pm Dinner of large sprouted bean and seed salad with avocado, greens, peppers and tahini dressing served with flax crackers

Marissa-Catherine Carrarini is a naturopathic nutritional therapist who loves working with people on raw/vegan diets. She owns and practises at her London clinic and health store, Snowsfields Wellness.

Comments

[Swayze]

"On the flip side you may have a constant, raging appetite. No matter what you eat, you cannot stop. Even after a huge meal you are back at the fridge looking for your next snack."

When I don't consume enough raw, ripe fruit, I can definitely have a raging appetite. As long as I'm received enough carbs, I feel perfectly satisfied and have more than enough energy throughout the day. :)

Swayze

[Vadim]

What about Food Combining rules? I think the most important 2 things in health is to eat whole fruits and to have a good digestion/absorbtion (throught taking care of food combining, sandwiches don't drow on trees, neither fruit+fat shakes). Otherwise a very interesting arcticle, bravo.
Thanks

[Swayze]

"sandwiches don't grow on trees"

Haha, great point! I prefer to stick to simple mono-meals most of the time. Even the recipes I do make are very simple with less than 5 ingredients and following food combining rules.

Swayze

[Lou]

Very helpful. Thank you!