Abstract
Today, people's food consumption is due to the pleasure they feel for that food rather than their physiological needs. This situation is explained by the view of hedonism. According to this view, the happiness of a person in life is hidden in the pleasure and pleasure he receives from that life. Hedonic hunger, on the other hand, is when a person does not need energy but wants to consume that food for the pleasure he gets from delicious foods. Hedonic hunger prevents the homeostatic pathway when the energy in the body is higher than normal and increases the desire of the person to eat delicious foods. Food enjoyment may induce 'non-homoeostatic' eating. This could potentially contribute to obesity. Obesity has genetic and environmental interactions. It is also a serious and chronic disease. Today, it has become a growing health problem. Since obesity has become a very important health problem that threatens human health, it is very important to understand hedonic hunger in order to establish a meaningful connection between an individual's unhealthy lifestyle and food consumption.
TopBackground
Hunger and appetite are different concepts. While hunger is a physiological condition that occurs when the individual does not get the nutrients they need, appetite is a psychological condition (Carola et al., 1990). Ghrelin, identified in studies conducted by Kojima and colleagues in the stomach of mice in 1999, is located in the oxyntic mucosa of the stomach. It also contains 28 amino acids (Kojima et al., 1999).
The feeling of satiety is the occurrence of signals indicating intake of the amount of nutrients the individual needs, and then the end of the nutrient intake. Satiety and fullness are two important concepts that should not be confused with each other. Fullness means a complete cessation of food intake, while satiety describes the time from the end of nutrient intake to the occurrence of a feeling of hunger that manifests itself sometime later (Carola et al., 1990).
Peptides Regulating Food Taking
Peptides that regulate food intake are divided into orexigenic and anorexigenic peptides according to their effects on human eating behavior (Hagan et al., 2000). When the feeling of hunger manifests itself in a person, orexigenic peptides come into play and stimulate food intake. Anorexigenic peptides are peptides that stop food intake when the person does not need energy, i.e. when the feeling of satiation occurs (Li et al., 2003).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Restrictive Diet: A diet that limits foods.
Satiety Sensations: Term is a sense of fullness after eating.
Power of Food Scale (PFS): Measures individual reactions to the presence of food in the environment.
Homeostatic Pathways: Pathways involved in the maintenance of the internal environment of an organism, the stability of normal body states and the feedback regulatory mechanisms that control them.
Food Cue: Food cues include situations associated with food-related memories or viewing of food stimuli, advertisements.
Hedonic Hunger: Person preoccupation with and desire to consume foods for the purposes of pleasure and in the absence of physical hunger.
Obesity: A person who's very overweight, with a lot of body fat.