Before speaking about food, nutrition, or health, there is a quieter and more fundamental question that often goes unasked: What is hunger?
Before speaking about food, nutrition, or health, there is a quieter and more fundamental question that often goes unasked: What is hunger?
Where do you feel it in your body? Is it in your stomach, your throat, your mouth, a readiness to receive food? Or is what we call hunger shaped by other rhythms: the time of day, emotion, or habit?
When was the last time you were truly hungry and had a meal?
Growing up our meals are often organized almost entirely by time. Breakfast in the morning, lunch in the afternoon, dinner at night, with snacking woven in between. School bells, schedules, and later work routines dictates when to eat. Hunger, the word itself, becomes distant, less a lived experience, more a concept tied to routine.
A baby knows hunger clearly. When a baby is hungry, it cries. When it is full, it does not eat. There is no persuasion, no logic, no routine. The communication is direct and embodied.
Slowly, feeding is aligned with adult schedules and convenience. Over time, the clarity of hunger dulls. What begins as responsiveness becomes routine. By adulthood, most of us are better at following the clock than listening to the body.
licated. Animals eat when they are hungry. If food is not available, they wait. They fast. Wild animals do not graze continuously; they eat when the body calls.
Domesticated animals are conditioned to schedules, but instinct still speaks. In the wild, movement, effort, and hunger are connected. Physical activity prepares the digestive system. Food is earned through engagement with life.
Modern human life looks different. We sit for long hours. We move little. Yet we eat frequently, often more than our ancestors ever did.
For much of human history, there was no universal concept of breakfast as we know it today. Many traditional cultures ate one or two substantial meals a day, often after physical work had already begun.
The modern idea of breakfast emerged alongside industrialization. Factory schedules, school timetables, and long working hours required predictable energy intake. Food had to be quick, standardized, and easily distributed.
Cereal companies seized this opportunity. By promoting grains as essential morning fuel, they introduced the notion that skipping breakfast was unhealthy, even dangerous. Marketing framed breakfast as the most important meal, not because the body demanded it, but because industry required it and products needed to be sold.
Over time, this industrial solution became a cultural norm, reaching Indian households and blending with local food habits. What began as a strategy for consumption became unquestioned tradition.
When food is eaten without hunger, the experience changes.
Have you noticed how food tastes when you are truly hungry? Even the simplest, bland meal feels satisfying, alive, enough.
When hunger is absent, even the most elaborate meal can feel dull. The body seeks stimulation instead of nourishment: more spice, more salt, more sugar, more intensity. This is not a failing; it is a sensory response. Appetite becomes craving.
Digestion requires energy. It draws on what many traditions call prana or nerve energy.
When the body is genuinely hungry, digestion flows easily. Enzymes respond. Energy moves.
When food arrives without hunger, digestion becomes work. Energy is pulled inward, and the body feels heavy, sluggish, or sleepy. To counter this, we reach for external stimulants: tea, coffee, sugar. These provide temporary lift but do not restore underlying energy. The cycle quietly repeats.
Another layer is availability. Food today is constantly accessible. It arrives with a click or a short walk. There is little waiting, no effort. Hunger cues blur. Habit takes over.
Our ancestors worked for food, moved for it, and ate in response to genuine need. Today, we eat because it is there, not always because the body calls.
I am still learning this myself everyday to listen to the body and feed when hungry. It is not simple when decades of habit have trained the body to ignore its signals. Sometimes thirst can also be confused with hunger.
Hunger is not an idea. It is a sensation, a communication, a relationship. Perhaps the question is not how often we eat or what we eat, but whether we are listening at all.
For your next meal, take a moment to feel your body and check what is guiding you to feed. I am curious to hear your reflections and insights.
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AuroOrchard is certified organic by the Tamil Nadu Organic Certification (ORG/SC/1906/001683) Department accredited by APEDA (Agricultural and Processed Food Products Exports Development Authority), New Delhi, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India.
