Appetite in Man

Abstract

The concepts of hunger and appetite, as regulators of food intake in man, are compared and contrasted. It is proposed that the term hunger be applied only to biochemical and physiologic processes; appetite only to psychological regulations. Hunger is discussed as an instinct, appetite as a drive, and both at varying levels of consciousness. Appetite subsumes all affective, perceptual, ideational and conative regulations of food intake. Appetite, as a function of man’s mind, is interposed between the internal, metabolic demands of hunger and appetitive and consummatory behaviors directed to the environment. The regulation of food intake in man can be fully understood only if man (as adult and child) is studied. This is due to man’s phylogenetically unique cerebral cortex which permits mental representations of drives and, therefore, introspective, subjective perceptions of appetite which must be included in the study of nutritional regulations. Emphasis is given to limbic and neocortical aspects of the regulation of food intake by concomittant and integrated physiologic and psychologic processes. Because man’s mind allows delays, distortions and substitutions of drives, the manifest nutritional behaviors of hyperphagia and hypophagia are often a substitute gratification for other needs and drives which are non-nutritional in origin. Such distortions and substitutions are termed the psychopathology of appetite. These mechanisms usually occur at unconscious levels of awareness. Because man’s mind permits symbolization of foods, eating behaviors and certain viscerosomatic processes, the author’s studies of dreams of food and eating were elaborated. These appear to be a useful method of psychoanalytic research for studying unconscious aspects of oral urges, food and eating behaviors. Emphasis is given to studying separately metabolic needs, oral urges, food intake and eating behaviors in order to delineate separate components in the regulation of food intake. The need for continuing multidiscipline investigations, with new and more refined methodologic approaches, is apparent.