To think some amount of pain when hungry is not necessarily a problem?

[Carla786]

So I was talking about food with my DM the other day and I was surprised at the different ways we see hunger.
She feels strongly that if you have gnawing/growling etc feelings in your stomach this is unhealthy and means that acid is hurting your stomach. I argued that some mild amount of this, let's say half an hour before you eat, isn't a problem, provided you have nutritious and filling meals.

Essentially she feels that the only healthy way to feel hungry is to feel a mild empty sensation but not pain, but any amount of pain is unhealthy and means you should eat something straight away or you will harm your stomach, and if it happens often, you should go to the GP to see if something is wrong with the stomach lining.

Who is BU?

Yes. But everytime i have ever asked someone if they ever feek sick from hunger i have been told "no" so at least i now know I'm not the only one 😀

I've never had actual pain from hunger... And I have gone a couple of days without eating before.

Do people have actual pain when they're hungry? What?!

EDIT: I have however felt sick/nauseous from hunger, as pp have said

I have far more energy before I eat - digesting is tiring, it’s why older people have a nap after lunch.
Hungry is the natural human state - we hunted to eat, not the other way round.

@Carla786 I think you've used the word pain completely wrong here

Pain is you've twisted your ankle really badly and can't stand up, for example

I would never use pain to describe hunger - you might get that if you'd gone without food for a few days but I've never done that

Did you mean discomfort rather than pain?

I get the hungry stomachache thing. I understand that I had it when I was little. But it was an ache, not a pain. Big difference in my view.

I definitely wouldn't advocate not eating until you actually feel pain, but I doubt anyone's doing that

Ive learnt a bit too late in life that what I thought were hunger pangs were acid pangs, that gnawing feeling

I have soemtimes been so hungry I feel sick, that is very very hungry

Sometimes Im just comfortably hungry and it suddenly occurs to me that Im hungry. Its such an unusual feeling that I think that I shoujld feel it more often, it sort of feels natural

Its akin to one of our senses I think and I think we have lost sight of it (no pun intended)

I like to wake up hungry. If I eat too late in the evening(like today yet again) it doesnt happen and then it sets my day off badly because Im not hungry enough to eat in the morning but then wont get time at work and then I'll be ultra hungry and then like others have said, want to snack.

I've never felt pain, or even discomfort.from being hungry.

I don’t get pain from being hungry but if I’ve not eaten for too long I get a bad headache and start to feel dizzy

At worst I feel an empty rumbling tummy and I quite enjoy that feeling and then eating when I can afterwards. It’s not painful or uncomfortable at all.

I’ve never felt pain from hunger. Just rumbling and growling occasionally

There are some fucked-up attitudes to food on Mumsnet.

Pain is your body telling you something is wrong.

Eat some food, for God's sake!!!

Everyone feels hunger differently, some people don't experience any hunger cues whereas others quite extreme such as pain. It's all to do with our sensory needs and the 8th sense called interoception. I personally experience pain and discomfort when hungry and because of this will actively avoid going without food for long periods of time.

The stomach is just under the bra area. That's where it sits.