always hungry? here's why and what you must do about it

So you are eating a lot but are still always hungry? As much as folk lore tells you that you have worms in your belly who eat everything you eat and that's what makes you hungry, there's more to it. There are a ton of potential reasons but here are some key one's and how you can address them

1. High volume of intake but low nutritional value

Take white flour, sugar, some form of dairy and some concoction of vegetable oil for deep frying them all. It does not matter what you call it - fried sweet dough, shakarpara (in india) or something else, just a handful of these would fill you up in no time because it is a very high dead calorie food. But what's important to understand is that high calorie does not equate to high nutrition unless you make a conscious effort. Calories are good for us, they are the life source but they have to be living and breathing source of life vs. dead. Swap out the white flour with whole grain flour, swap out the processed/white sugar with a better form of sweetner like dates or figs, skip the dairy and replace the deep frying process with baking and/or light sauteing in good fats like Ghee, Olive oil, Coconut oil or Avocado oil. Now you have a good high calorie food which is also equally high in nutrition concentration.

2. Good fats vs. a laser focus on Carbs, Protein, Fats

You probably have a nutrition pyramid or chart from your doctor on how much Carb, protein and fats you should consume on a daily basis. This chart has given you a guideline for the types of foods you buy. I do not know what your chart says, but the cells in our body are made of 40-60% fat. If you current diet contains 1-10% fat intake, you are starving your cells to death. But consuming bad fat sources will not satisfy cellular hunger. E.g. 5 donuts have + a sugary drink has a ton of fat - this is bad fat. meaning it is un-healthy for you and cells gets damaged when you consume it because sugar causes cellular inflammation, dairy in these creates acidic environment in the body and to top it off, saturated fat from preservative and chemical laden vegetable oils clogs vital arteries throughout the body.

Consume fat. from the following good fat sources - Ghee, Avocado, Olives and Coconut. All forms of these are great additions to your daily fat intake. Let's take oil from Olives, Avocadoes and Coconut - they are great fat sources along with Ghee and provide us with the much needed food energy
A healthy dose of good fats throughout the day will keep you full and satisfied longer. Also, remember good fats make you thin and healthy when combined with good physical activity. Bad fats and processed sugar and inactivity makes you unhealthy and fat.

Caution - As healthy as all these fats are, heating them beyond their smoke point will change their molecular composition beyond repair and they will cause inflammation and cell damage. Attempt to stick to raw consumption for these oils - meaning drizzle generously over salads, lentils/dals, rice etc. but do not use them for deep frying etc. If you can get rid of that deep fryer even better. We do not need it around us for anything healthy. Our cultures have a ton of rich food traditions - fermenting vegetables for pickles, growing our own herbs ir-respective of how small a home we live in, making and giving nutritious food to homeless, feeding wild animals and birds seed they need and a ton more. These are the traditions we need to take fwd. It is unfair and socially criminal to hang on to the indulgences but skip the best parts of any culture.

3. Low physical activity

Did you know that mutated and cancerous cells crave more sugar. They breed in acidic and inflamed environments so sugar + dairy + gluten + deep fried stuff is a great breeding environment for them. But there's another aspect to it as well. Cancer cells hate oxygen, high heat and anti-oxidants. What happens when you move your body? What happens when you move your body vigorously? especially when you move it in fresh air full of oxygen? Body takes in oxygen which travels to every single cell via blood, exercise generates internal heat and the veggies we consume along with these 2 elements create an environment where dis-eased cells find it impossible to exist.

In the absence of physical activity, the mutated cells continue to crave more and more and more ... they are hungry and in-satiatble. No number of ice cream tubs and donuts and chocolates and chips and soft drinks and on and on will satisfy them. Find a way to move and if you can move vigorously depending on what activity works  best for you and you will create the right conditions within your body to thrive and step towards better health. The other interesting aspect is that when you exercise, body craves healthy foods - when you see that it takes 10 minutes of running to burn 100 calories and it takes 10 seconds to consume a 1000 dead calories in a donut, you develop appreciation for exercise and resistance to junk.

4. Our bodies are what we feed them. (I am that or Soham in Hindi)

We have this awesome miraculous machine called human body that makes cells out of pretty much anything we put into it. There is no other machine which can do this that man has created. We had a moped growing up at our home, one of our employees put kerosene in the fuel tank vs. petrol. Poor moped ran for 2-3 kilometers and then the engine gave up. We know what not to do with our cars and motorcycles - it's in their user manuals - use 93 octane fuel only etc. We completely skip thinking about what out machines need.  Given that our bodies will turn anything into living and breathing cells, if you look at a food and can say 'I am that' - consume it, it's great for you. If you look at some so called food which you do not want your machine to convert into your bodies cells, do not consume it. it's really that simple. Same holds true for thoughts as well, but that's a different discussion.  Try it out with foods around you and see if you can say 'I am that' or more accurately 'My body is that', go for it; if not, skip it.

5. Good proteins - Bio-availability

There is an over emphasis on protein intake in 21st century. And the recommended protein intake sources are considered to be meat, dairy and poultry. Refer to Dr. Campbell's china study and associated collateral online for details on the ill-effects of this approach. Vegetables are the best form of protein. See what the nutritional outlets are selling the most - is it animal protein or some plant based - like pea protein. Why is that? If you take the same sources  you can skip the powdered, dead forms. Some great natural protein sources are

a. Peas

b. Greens

c. Nuts (Almonds ..)

d. Beans (Kidney, chickpeas)

e. Dals (Moong, Arhar..)

f. Grains/Seeds (Quinoa, chia, amaranth, buckwheat)

g. we can keep going here - point is that there is ample protein all around us, make sure that the source is easily digestible and available to our bodies to do what they need to. If it takes 8-16 hours for your food to digest and pass through your system, what does that tell you about the bio-availability of the protein and fats and carbs in that food source? Not good and healthy at all ... .Bio-availability theory applies not only to protein - it applies the same way to fats, carbs and anything else we consume. As a general rule of thumb if your digestive system can process and digest the food in 2-4 hours - it is most likely good for you and will provide you the much needed nutrition, if not - skip it. I know you are thinking - so if I can digest a fast food burger and soda in 3 hours hence it is good for me. Try to understand the gist vs. allowing your mind to play tricks on you.

6. Good carbs

While we are at it, let's talk about good carbs as well. Carbs have a bad reputation and there are a ton of social reasons for it. We need carbs, but just like good protein, good fats, we need good carbs. Sources again are plenty and all around us

a. Baked potatoes (non GMO and organic of course) - NOT french fries

b. Baked sweet potatoes. NOT deep fried ...

c. beans, brown rice

d. virtually every fibrous fruit and vegetable

e. Grains/Seeds (Quinoa, chia, amaranth, buckwheat).

7. I know we will be repetitive so i will stop. Good wholesome food choices provide with the perfect balance of carb, protein and fats. Do not think about each food component separately, it's either a whole food or none at all. You cannot take 70 kg of water, 20 kg of ground protein powder and 10 kg of fat and create a human body out of it. Dont try to reverse engineer health by splitting out foods into these silos as well. A scoop of 40 grams of protein, a capsule with 5000MG of Vit-C are not the same as eating a stalk of celery, broccoli and bowl of dal(lentils) with Ghee. Stick to whole foods which are organic and non-GMO and basic rules of nutrition and you will continue to develop and enjoy great health.