What does it mean to be hungry?

When someone says “I’m hungry” can mean two things. The most common in our country wants simply mean that someone who has not eaten hungry. But in many countries around the world suffer from hunger is chronically hungry.

In the first case it is only a short-term hunger, while the second is a problem in the short, medium and long term, often related to the unavailability of food but also lack of access available food because of poverty.

Can hunger become a disease?

It is not by definition but may become so if we do not give your body the nutrients it needs. The common feeling of hunger is simply a response to your body when you are in need of food. It is a physiological response.

But it’s different when hunger is chronic. In these cases the body develops coping mechanisms in the short term but also problems in specific organs like the kidneys, intestine and finally the heart.

Lack of food leads to weight loss and therefore a loss of protein in the kidneys, liver, muscle, brain …The first phase of this pathological process is a chemical step involved in the endocrine system, producing, for example, abnormal levels of insulin or cortisone.

Usually within 48 hours develop ketones, acids that the body produces when you burn your glucose reserves. These reserves are usually burned in the first 24 hours without food. After you burn your fat and sugar at this time is when ketones are produced.

In the third phase is when you go really in a nutritional deficit. So far you’ve burned your glucose, then your fat and now is when you start to burn your protein, because amino acids are created by the tissue and are now beginning to be burned and rusted, so you start to lose your kidneys, liver, muscles, brain … at this time your immune system stops working properly.

Is this a reversible process or a state of malnutrition drag consequences in the future?

This is an interesting question. There is no doubt that malnutrition in early life and childhood has an impact on intellectual development when you are young.

Recent studies demonstrate the strong impact of healthy food in intelligence and psychosocial behavior when you are young.

There is no doubt that malnutrition and other forms of malnutrition such as iron deficiency involve irreversible intellectual damage.