People are forced to eat more than they should primarily because of hunger pangs.
I am not sure this is true in contemporary West. I suspect that a lot of overeating happens because of social cues (“I’m at a dinner party so I should eat even though I’m not hungry”) and for purely psychological reasons—from boredom and activity displacement (“I’d like to procrastinate a bit, let me go and have a snack”) to hedonics (“Sugar boosts make me feel better, yay sugar!”). None of that is actually hunger.
Perhaps that’s also a reason, but the role of insulin / leptin resistance in causing hunger pangs (contractions of the stomach) in situations when additional food is not actually required is pretty well established.
Oh, feelings of hunger certainly exist (though I’m not sure what does “additional food is not actually required” mean).
Perhaps it would be useful to draw a distinction between people who are trying to lose weight and who are not. The former are likely to get to the point of actually being hungry and so being driven by hunger. The latter, I think, rarely get hungry and tend to overeat for non-hunger reasons.
I am not sure this is true in contemporary West. I suspect that a lot of overeating happens because of social cues (“I’m at a dinner party so I should eat even though I’m not hungry”) and for purely psychological reasons—from boredom and activity displacement (“I’d like to procrastinate a bit, let me go and have a snack”) to hedonics (“Sugar boosts make me feel better, yay sugar!”). None of that is actually hunger.
Perhaps that’s also a reason, but the role of insulin / leptin resistance in causing hunger pangs (contractions of the stomach) in situations when additional food is not actually required is pretty well established.
Oh, feelings of hunger certainly exist (though I’m not sure what does “additional food is not actually required” mean).
Perhaps it would be useful to draw a distinction between people who are trying to lose weight and who are not. The former are likely to get to the point of actually being hungry and so being driven by hunger. The latter, I think, rarely get hungry and tend to overeat for non-hunger reasons.