Re: What causes 'hunger pains'?

I do not know the whole answer to your question. There is much more to it 
than I will be able to give you.

When you eat the brain makes chemicals called endorphins. These compounds 
are give you a sense of well-being and fullness and so you stop eating. Some 
people may not respond to these substances and will just keep eating. 
Between meals the concentration of endorphins in the brain decreases and 
triggers messages that make us want to eat. We can ignore this message and 
not eat.
We have also trained our selves that certain times are times to eat and will 
begin to feel that we should eat even if we do not need to eat.

Sometimes acid is released into the stomach when it is not needed i.e. there 
is no food in there. The stomach walls react by having the muscles contract 
and relax in an effort to mix the acid into anything in the stomach and keep 
it away from the walls. The release of acid can be triggered because you 
think of food, smell food, see food, or even just because you have "trained 
your brain" that at noon food should be on its way.

As I said, there is much much more to the answer than I can explain and I 
think that even the experts in the areas of eating and eating disorders do 
not have all the answers.


I hope this at least helps.