General Health And Wellness Codexery

Appetite

Desire to eat, regulating energy intake across higher life-forms.

Last updated

Hunger typically drives the desire to consume food, which is referred to as appetite.[1] Satiety can significantly diminish appetite, yet attractive food can trigger it even without hunger.[1] To maintain metabolic needs, all higher life-forms have appetite as a mechanism for regulating sufficient energy intake.[1]

Quick Facts

Field
  • Physiology
  • Psychology
  • Medicine
Related conditions
  • Anorexia
  • polyphagia
  • ARFID
  • bulimia nervosa
  • cachexia
  • binge eating disorder
Key hormones
Ghrelin (stimulates hunger), Leptin (stimulates satisfaction)

Facts from the source article.

Key facts and history

Appetite can be influenced by both hereditary and environmental elements, and irregularities in either factor can result in disordered appetite.[2] Physical conditions like infectious or malignant diseases, as well as psychological stressors, can cause poor appetite, known as anorexia.[2] Hormonal imbalances or mental health conditions such as depression may lead to hyperphagia, which is excessive eating.[2] A sensation of being "overly full" shortly after starting a meal, a symptom of dyspepsia (indigestion), can impact appetite.[2]

Disorders of taste and smell, including dysgeusia, have the potential to influence appetite.[2] Chromosomal alterations causing Prader–Willi syndrome, a form of obesity identified in the 1950s, demonstrate a genetic link to abnormal appetite.[3] A higher prevalence of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa in females suggests a potential connection to the X-chromosome.[3] Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder are fundamentally linked to a dysregulation of appetite.[4]

Children can be at risk for binge eating disorder, which most frequently first appears in adulthood.[5]

What the cited sources add

The WebMD account notes that although ADHD medications curb appetite, once the stimulant effect wears off, appetite can come roaring back.[6]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Appetite" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Hedonic and incentive signals for body weight control", Reviews in Endocrine & Metabolic Disorders, September 2011, p. 141–51 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Appetite" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Indigestion", Digestive.niddk.nih.gov; "Taste and smell function in chronic disease: a review of clinical and biochemical evaluations of taste and smell dysfunction in over 5000 patients at The Taste and Smell Clinic in Washington, DC", American Journal of Ot (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Appetite" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Weight control and appetite--a genetic perspective", Clinical Nutrition, October 1990, p. 291–3 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Appetite" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Psychology", Worth Publishers, 2011 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Appetite" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Binge eating disorder: the next generation of research", The International Journal of Eating Disorders, April 2013, p. 193–207 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. "How ADHD Medication Can Affect Your Weight", WebMD. facts only, no text reused. webmd.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Appetite (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

Also in the Codexery

Appetite · Nutrition And Diet

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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