Traditionally, researchers have distinguished two hunger-related states in the person of normal weight. The first is essentially what the layperson would regard as hunger, the state in which we desire to eat. This desire to eat initiates the eating response, meaning we reach for food to relieve the hungry sensation.

The second state is characterized by the satisfied feeling that follows eating. Satiety signals that the time has come to stop eating, that the desire for food that initiated the eating episode has been appeased.

Those two hunger-related states have been identified as typical of people of normal weight. However, we are finding the sequence is more complicated, especially in the carbohydrate addict.

At the Carbohydrate Addict’s Center and at the Mount Sinai Medical Center, our research has identified four hunger states.

They are as follows:

Generalized or Common Hunger

This is the strong urge to eat food of any kind. Though intense, this hunger passes in time and later reappears. “Normal” hunger belongs in this classification.

Most carbohydrate addicts report that they have the least difficulty controlling their eating responses to this hunger state.

Specific Hunger or Craving

Craving is the strong desire to eat a specific food (or food group). A craving is not likely to disappear for good and often increases in intensity. Although normals as well as carbohydrate-addicted people experience cravings, this hunger state recurs more often and more intensely in the carbohydrate addict. Craving may escalate in intensity and frequency to a point of addiction.

Discomfort or Dissatisfaction Hunger

This may be thought of as the “nibble-need.” It is a less intense sensation than craving, but is nonetheless a persistent desire to snack. There is often a vague accompanying sense of discomfort; there may also be an accompanying belief that just the right food will “hit the spot,” relieving the sense of dissatisfaction, but the “right food” is illusive.

Rarely is there any awareness of which food or food group will be satisfying. The eater in a state of dissatisfaction will often go from food to food in search of satiety. The classic image for this hunger state is the person standing in front of an open refrigerator, just looking for something to eat. In the carbohydrate addict, this hunger state may typically appear more often, though not necessarily more intensely, than in the normal person.

Subconscious Hunger

This hunger often does not enter one’s awareness before the impulse to eat takes over. Subconscious hunger is characterized by a strong and often uncontrollable desire to eat; it results in the consumption of food without plan or anticipation.

Carbohydrate addicts often describe what we call an impulse-eating incident as occurring with only little awareness of loss of control or of psychological conflict on their parts. Normal eaters and lower-level carbohydrate addicts attribute the impulse-eating incidents to habit, though occasionally they admit that they are unable to stop even when they want to. During impulse eating, food is often consumed quickly with little chewing.

Just as some basic researchers are beginning to explain some of the biological and chemical underpinnings of carbohydrate addiction, the clinical research that we and others are conducting is helping us to understand more about the behavioral-biological links of this disorder.

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