Eating disorders may present as excessive or low appetite. The external environmental factors, such as the ambient temperature, physical activity, eating habits, time of eating meals and their quality, significantly influence the appetite. High temperature and intense physical exertion reduce the need for high-energy foods, while cold and chronic activity increase the need for high-energy foods.

What do we consider as normal appetite?

Appetite is the basic human activity that requires the body to constantly supply food, which is a source of energy. Thanks to an appropriate energy balance, it is possible to maintain a constant body weight. It should be emphasized that the energy demand varies from person to person, because it depends on age, body weight, comorbidities, and even the work performed in a given period.

The human body, which feels hungry, is automatically mobilized to eat some food and thus compensate for energy deficiencies. The structures responsible for regulating appetite are located in the central nervous system, in the area of ​​the hypothalamus. They include the satiety center and the hunger center. In turn, nerve cells located in these centers show sensitivity to extracorporeal and intra-corporeal stimuli.

Regulating appetite is based on the inhibition of the food drive by neurotransmitters and metabolic factors, such as the concentration of amino acids, fatty acids and glucose.

Appetite is subjected to various environmental influences, in the form of:

1. habits,
2. temperature (cold increases appetite and high temperature reduces),
3. physical activity (short physical exercise reduces appetite, while chronic exercise increases the amount of food consumed),
4. eating habits,
5. availability of food products,
6. the quality of the food.

Symptoms of hunger include a feeling of sucking in the stomach, restlessness, and upper abdominal pain. In addition, dizziness, headaches, nausea and tremors may occur. In turn, the opposite of hunger is the feeling of fullness that occurs after eating food. Appetite is the desire to eat only selected dishes.

Types of eating disorders

There are three types of eating disorders, as listed below.

Increased appetitecomes in three varieties.

1. Polyphagia – characterized by the need to eat large amounts of food. The causes of this ailment may be functional, organic, nervous (thyroid diseases, parasitic diseases, pregnancy,diabetes).
2. Akoria – a feeling of lack of satiety after eating a meal, ailment occurs in mental illnesses.
3. Bulimia – it is a strong need to eat, with episodes of fast eating large amounts of energy-rich meals, and then, fearing obesity, provoking vomiting after eating, taking laxatives and diuretics. Bouts of strong appetite alternate with periods of very restrictive slimming diets, and therefore in these people (mostly women) there are significant fluctuations in body weight. These disorders are most often accompanied bydepressionand erroneous assessment of the size – body weight.

Reduced appetitecomes in two forms.

1. Sitophobia – it is the fear / fear of eating caused by the fear that pain symptoms appear after a meal (e.g. in diseases of the pancreas,gallstone disease).
2. Anorexia– a disease in which there is no feeling of hunger.

To improve the appetite, wild garlic can be used as a spice.

Distorted cravingsalso come in two varieties.

1. Parorexia – a peculiar craving consisting in the desire to eat unusual dishes.
2. Pica – this is the desire to eat inedible things, e.g. hair, flowers, soil.

When talking about eating disorders, the accompanying change in body weight should also be mentioned. And so, increased appetite may be associated with weight gain (with disorders of the central nervous system, bulimia or simply with bad eating habits) and weight loss. This happens, for example, in endocrine diseases – diabetes orhyperthyroidism.

Anorexia, accompanied by weight gain, most often occurs simultaneously with water retention in the body and the formation ofedema. This usually occurs in diseases of the heart and vessels, kidneys, liver and some endocrinopathies.

On the other hand, anorexia and the associated weight loss occur in a large number of psychogenic and organic diseases.

The causes of eating disorders

The most common causes of an eating disorder (appetite) include:

1. Endocrine system disorders: decompensated diabetes mellitus, adrenal insufficiency,hyperparathyroidism, hypopituitarism.
2. Diseases of the central nervous system with increased intracranial pressure, accompanied byheadachesand vomiting.
3. Gastrointestinal diseases such as acute and chronic gastritis,inflammatory bowel diseases,diseases of the liver, bile ducts and pancreas, stenosis of the pylorus,constipation, neoplastic diseases, condition after gastrectomy.
4. Vitamin disorders (increased levels of vitamin D), electrolytes (increased levels of calcium).
5. Anemia– iron deficiency, malignant.

Appetite disorders and excessive appetite

Excessive appetite is associated with the consumption of excessive amounts of food, which therefore leads to overweight and obesity. This is influenced by a number of factors, including family, environmental and emotional factors. The mental disorders associated with overeating are known asbulimia nervosa.Bulimia is a condition that affects women more often. In its course, there are periods of eating large amounts of food (high-calorie), after which bulimics, fearing obesity, provoke vomiting or take laxatives and diuretics. After an intense period of overeating, there is usually a period of weight loss. People suffering from bulimia often have a wrong image of themselves and their body, and suffer from depression.

Excessive appetite does not always mean illness. Sometimes factors like stress make your appetite increase.

Lack of appetite

The causes of anorexia vary in children and adults. In children, it most often occurs due to dietary mistakes or food allergies. In adults, however, problems with appetite may be caused by smoking or depression.

Some people have an accelerated metabolism, e.g. in hyperthyroidism, which results in weight loss despite eating food. Most often, however, we lose weight due to lack of appetite. Lack of appetite is a symptom of many organic and mental ailments, which makes it a non-specific symptom. For this reason, other common symptoms should also be taken into account when looking for the cause. Lack of appetite is observed, among others, in states of increased temperature and after surgery.

The diseases and ailments accompanied by the lack of appetite include:

1. digestive tract ailments, such as liver and pancreatic diseases, gastritis orenteritis.In addition to anorexia, there is nausea, vomiting, jaundice or constipation.
2. central nervous system diseases (e.g. psychosis, neurosis),
3. endocrine disorders – anorexia occurs in hyperparathyroidism, hypopituitarism or uncontrolled diabetes,
4. neoplastic diseases – anorexia appears as a consequence of the influence of various substances produced by the tumor on the regulatory center in the nervous system; lack of appetite may also be related to impaired taste and smell,
5. vitamin disorders, e.g. vitamin D overdose, vitamin deficiency and electrolyte disturbances, e.g. anemia or liver failure,
6. anorexia nervosa – occurs most often in young girls and causes deep metabolic and hormonal disorders. In extreme cases, anorexia can even lead to death,
7. chronic alcoholism,
8. poisoning,
9. food allergies – the most common allergens are eggs, nuts, fish and seafood; ingestion of the allergen causes abdominal pain,
10. smoking – smoking lowers the number of calories absorbed and speeds up metabolism,
11. medications (especially antibiotics).

The cause of the lack of appetite are often nutritional mistakes that we make, e.g. rushing while eating or eating poorly diversified meals. In turn, in children, the lack of appetite may be related to forcing them to eat a certain amount of food and additionally serving sweets between meals. Such behavior causes a lack of appetite because the digestive tract is overloaded or there is a psychological trauma.

Parents of young children often come to the doctor’s office to ask the doctor to prescribe a “miracle” preparation to increase the child’s appetite. Unfortunately, such drugs do not exist. Typically, this group of children is not diagnosed with eating disorders, so it is advisable to vary the daily meals to get better. It is enough to serve the dishes in a colorful and attractive way, preferably at fixed times.

You can also try organic dandelion juice that has a comprehensive effect on the body, including helping to regulate the appetite.

As an auxiliary, you can take vitamin preparations in which there are a number of plant substances, e.g. dill, aloe or mint. Their properties regulate the functioning of the intestines and facilitate the removal of undigested food residues.