Family Matters: The always hungry loop
How many times a day do you hear “Muuuum, I’m hungry!” or “Daaad, I want a snack”? Many families we work with have trouble feeling full, or always feeling hungry — and here’s how to bust that always hungry loop.
Choose balanced snacks & meals
Use the NHS Eatwell Guide to ensure your meals and snacks are full of the nutrients and minerals that will keep you feeling full.
The Eatwell Guide is split into 5 sections: carbohydrates, proteins, fats, dairy and fruits and vegetables.
During main meals, can think of the Eatwell Guide like our plate and build our meals arounds this.
Carbohydrates (things like rice, bread, oats and pasta) should fill about one third of our plate. Carbohydrates are key for giving us energy, and using wholemeal versions provides a great source of fibre – keeping us full for longer.
Fruits and vegetables should fill another third of our plate. Fruits and vegetables give us vitamins and minerals that we need to stay strong and healthy. They also are a great source of fibre, again helping us to feel full and allowing our digestive system to work properly.
Protein and dairy foods should fill the other third of our plate. These build and repair our bones and muscles and give us energy. Sources of protein include meats, fish, eggs, tofu and beans. Dairy foods include milk, cheese, and yoghurts.
Oils and spreads only take up a tiny portion of our plate — for example, adding a thin layer of butter to our toast or using small amounts of oil during cooking.
When having snacks, it’s also important to meet as many different sections of the Eatwell Guide as possible: this will help us to feel sustained between meals.
For example, having only crackers will provide us with carbohydrates, but is lacking in any other food group — and we will likely feel hungry soon after eating it.
Instead, have crackers with cheese and tomatoes or hummus – which will meet three of our Eatwell Guide food groups. And we’ll feel fuller and more energised between meals.
Foods like crisps and cakes are OK every once in a while too, but make sure your meals and snacks are balanced overall.
Foods which are high in sugars and saturated fats might satisfy us immediately, but without other food groups we will experience a spike in energy followed by a crash and immediate hunger again.
Healthy Eating Tips
Be wise on portion size
Often when we feel hungry soon after eating, it is because we didn’t eat enough during our meal.
Making sure we are eating the correct portion size for our age is just as important as making sure meals and snacks are balanced between the food groups.
An easy way to measure portion size is using your hands. Make sure that for children you use their hands (not yours), as it is relative to body size
Set a routine
Creating a set routine around meal and snack times can help children who find themselves constantly seeking out food. With a routine in place, your child will know the next chance to eat isn’t far away.
Every day, children should have three full meals and two or three snacks (two hours before meals).
You can create a chart to show younger children this eating schedule. For older children, try using snack boxes, which they are in charge of spacing between meals. This gives children a sense of independence and responsibility, and through trial and error they will learn to regulate their snacks to their appetite.
Where hunger strikes
Take a moment to reflect on where you usually are when you eat. Do you pick at the fridge? Snack in front of the TV?
It can be useful to pinpoint where and when we snack — as it might just be habits and environment making us think we are hungry.
Watch your language
Labelling foods as “good” and “naughty” or as “treats” can change the way children perceive certain foods, or how they feel after eating them.
Instead, we want to help children see all foods as parts of a balanced diet.
Even creating subtle restrictions around food with language such as “eat all your vegetables or you can’t have your dessert” or “because you were naughty, you can’t have a biscuit” can put certain foods on a pedestal.
This can increase the desire for food and create an emotional connection which interrupts a child’s hunger and fullness cues. Instead, try to model a positive attitude to food as a whole.
Physical vs emotion hunger
Sometimes our emotions can make us feel hungry when our bodies don’t really need food.
Having a conversation with children about how they feel when they are hungry is a good place to start to understand the difference.
Ask them how their tummies feel — are they feeling awake, angry, sleepy, sick? Will water satisfy them? Are they upset, tired or bored?
This chart below is a useful step for thinking about whether we are truly hungry, or if something else in our mind is making us think we need food.
STOMACH HUNGER
- Do you have physical signs of hunger? E.g., stomach grumbling, stomach pain, dizziness
- Has your feeling of hunger got more intense over time and is not going away?
- Would you eat any food no matter if it is sweet or savoury?
- Have you drunk water and are still feeling hungry?
BRAIN/EMOTIONAL HUNGER
- You have no physical signs of hunger but something in your brain is telling you that you should eat.
- Has your feeling of hunger come out of nowhere? Does your feeling of hunger come and go?
- Do you have a craving for a specific food or set of foods e.g., sweets?
- Have you drunk water and no longer feel hunger or physical signs of hunger?