Ever wonder why you easily get angry when you're hungry? CNN provides a scientific explanation on being "hangry", an amalgam for hungry and angry, where people get grumpy and act aggressively whenever they feel the great need to eat.
Acccording to a National Health and Medical Research Council senior research fellow at University of Sydney's Boden Insitute of Obesity, Nutrition, Exercise & Eating Disorders, the carbohydrates, fats and proteins consumed when eating are digested into glucose, free fatty acids and amino acids that become a source of energy for the organs through the bloodstream.
With the brain solely depending on glucose, it perceives the drop of blood-glucose levels as an alarming situation as time passes by after the last meal. This drop gives a person the difficulty to concentrate, prompting silly mistakes and slurred words.
Being hungry also pushes a person to snap at people they feel most comfortable with, due to the brain's disability to retain its power to filter messages sent towards a person's behavior.
Both hunger and anger are stimulated by the same gene, neuropeptide Y, which is a natural brain chemical released into the brain when a person is hungry. Stimulating brain receptors including the one responsible for appetite, called Y1 receptor, the neuropeptide Y and Y1 receptor also control a person's anger and aggression.
Neuropeptide Y levels increase when a person is hungry. According to experts, high levels of Neuropeptide Y also show increase in impulse aggression.
To deal with hanger, it is advised for people to eat something before getting too hungry.
Also, junk food pushes high levels of glucose that may cause a faster crash that could lead to getting hangry easily. Although it is obvious, it really does help for people to eat food that are rich in nutrients to keep up with the brain's needs.
