A grumbling stomach could lead to poor choices — and we’re not just talking about eating one too many chocolates or consuming chips instead of carrot sticks.
“When your body is physically hungry (not emotionally hungry) it means that it is experiencing low blood sugar and low energy,” says Chelsea Cross, RD, a dietitian with Dietetic Directions. “The most obvious symptoms are a growling stomach or hunger pangs but lack of concentration, moodiness, fatigue, headaches, nausea and brain fog can also be symptoms of hunger.”
饥饿和冲动
杂志，饥饿可能会使您更容易暴饮暴食或选择不健康的食物，但饥饿也对您做出与食品相关的决策的能力产生重大影响。research.
The study showed participants who fasted for 10 hours were more apt to choose food or cash rewards that were offered on the spot over waiting to receive larger rewards. This ‘present-focused’ attention indicates hunger could make you more impulsive and hamper your ability (and willingness) to delay gratification.
“考虑到较小的[立即]奖励和以后获得较大的奖励之间的选择，饥饿使人们更喜欢立即，较小的奖励，”邓迪大学讲师的合着者本杰明·文森特（Benjamin Vincent）博士说。
饥饿可能会降低意志力
In addition to making you more focused on food rewards, hunger also influences which foods you choose,increasing preferences for sugary, high-fat foods.
Hunger triggers the release of the ghrelin，一种与大脑奖励中心相连的激素。在缺乏期望的奖励的情况下 - 食物 - 动物研究表明，生长素的激增会增加冲动性，促使您寻求其他奖励，并可能导致您在此过程中做出不良的决定。research发表在《神经心理药理学》杂志上。
“The explanation [might] be that we are adapting our behavior in various ways to deal with the hunger state,” Vincent says. “We can imagine that we have evolved various responses to deal with negative situations (like hunger) so, while we don’t know for sure, we would presume that the changes in impulsivity might have some adaptive advantage.”
HOW WEIGHT PLAYS INTO HUNGER
您的体重也可能影响饥饿对决策的影响。Researchpublished in PLOS One found increased hunger led to more risk-taking behaviors in overweight teenagers compared to their normal-weight peers. Researchers warn the association could lead to overeating.
“When you’re hungry, your body needs carbohydrates; they give your body energy,” Cross explains. “If you eat something else, you might have a feeling of fullness but your body knows it didn’t get enough energy, [which can lead to] cravings for sugar, a fast-digesting carbohydrate.”
While overeating is a risk, Vincent found hunger influences other decisions, too.
他补充说：“我们预测，如果我们谈论食物奖励，这将会发生，但是有趣且稍微出乎意料的发现是，这种转变向更直接的满足率发生了，这是对非食品奖励发生的。”
POSITIVE EFFECT OF HUNGER ON DECISION-MAKING
There is some research pointing to the potential benefits of making certain decisions on an empty stomach: Hunger may actually increase your willingness to listen to your gut feelings. An olderstudypublished in PLOS One calls hunger a “hot state” that leads to heightened arousal, increasing your willingness to take risks to secure a desired object or outcome. The researchers believe hunger could be beneficial when you need to make complex decisions with uncertain outcomes.
Vincent acknowledges that whether hunger has an overall positive or negative impact on decision-making is not black and white, adding, “While there is evidence that some kinds of decision-making might not be affected by hunger … the picture [becomes] more complex if we consider mild versus extreme hunger [but] from our results alone, the suggestion would be to make sure that you are not feeling hungry when you have important decisions to make about your long-term future.”
