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Am I the only one who feels sharper and more adapt while somewhat hungry? Food makes me lethargic. I've never been sympathetic to ideas that "you should always

Am I the only one who feels sharper and more adapt while somewhat hungry? Food makes me lethargic. I've never been sympathetic to ideas that "you should always eat breakfast!". If possible, I'd prefer to skip breakfast and lunch. My idea: our ancestors were opportunistic savanna hunters. Why would we be unable to maintain homeostasis with respect to cognition even without food? Our ancestors would have needed their best cognition when they lacked food!

girvo 8y ago
I haven’t eaten breakfast in 15 years, and have lunch about 2pm. It genuinely makes me think clearer.
sp332 8y ago
Maybe you have a food sensitivity, and your body is having e.g. a mild allergic reaction. On the other hand your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are at odds, so if you try to get amped up right after eating you will get a stomach ache as your body moves blood away from your stomach and you basically stop digesting food for a while.
pazimzadeh 8y ago
I often feel more clear headed and direct in my reasoning when I am slightly hungry. Once I eat, I'm more likely to entertain implausible ideas, play "what if..." and it feels easier to argue for both sides of any idea.
gowld 8y ago
Optimal alertness/health is at a point between "paralyzed with starvation" and "paralyzed by overstuffedness". What you are calling "somewhat hungry" may be better stated as "full, but not overstuffed". To maintain a consistent energy level, 5+ small snacks is better than 3 large meals.
- air7 8y ago
  I'v always found it amusing that there is no word for English meaning "not hungry". There's only "full". It exists it many languages alongside "full" and there's a clear distinction between them.
  - DoctorOetker 8y ago
    "satisfied"?
  - quotemstr 8y ago
    Satiated?
- scarecrowbob 8y ago
  "To maintain a consistent energy level, 5+ small snacks is better than 3 large meals." Anecdotally, that's not been my experience, except in the time periods when I've been transitioning between feeding on that short schedule and feeding once a day. I recognize that this experience is wholly anecdotal, but the only time that I've felt "paralyzed with starvation" is not when I am actually in starvation mode (that is, 48 or so hours of not eating, which I do every couple of months), but rather when I've been eating often and switch to eating less often. That is to say, when I used to have candy and donuts and juice as part of my diet, then I would occasionally crash and lots of smaller meals prevented that crash. In that case, your advice is good. In other cases, it doesn't fit my experience. When I am in a period where I am eating a single large meal every 24 hours or so (mostly rice and beans and some other plants with a lot of fat), then I don't feel those crashes at all. I don't eat outside of that meal except for a short period of time before or after. I occasionally feel hungry, but I generally on-point mentally, and certainly not "paralyzed with starvation". If I get out of that pattern (usually because I am traveling or around folks who prevent that kind of eating from happening) I will often need to go through a longer fast to get back into that daily eating schedule. So my hypothesis (untested, of course) is that most folks have never gone more than 24 hours without eating, so if they are crashing after 3-5h then that's specific to their diet and not a universal human constant.
firethief 8y ago
That's normal for vertibrates: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orexin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orexin

girvo 8y ago

I haven’t eaten breakfast in 15 years, and have lunch about 2pm. It genuinely makes me think clearer.

sp332 8y ago

Maybe you have a food sensitivity, and your body is having e.g. a mild allergic reaction. On the other hand your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are at odds, so if you try to get amped up right after eating you will get a stomach ache as your body moves blood away from your stomach and you basically stop digesting food for a while.

pazimzadeh 8y ago

I often feel more clear headed and direct in my reasoning when I am slightly hungry. Once I eat, I'm more likely to entertain implausible ideas, play "what if..." and it feels easier to argue for both sides of any idea.

gowld 8y ago

Optimal alertness/health is at a point between "paralyzed with starvation" and "paralyzed by overstuffedness". What you are calling "somewhat hungry" may be better stated as "full, but not overstuffed". To maintain a consistent energy level, 5+ small snacks is better than 3 large meals.

air7 8y ago
I'v always found it amusing that there is no word for English meaning "not hungry". There's only "full". It exists it many languages alongside "full" and there's a clear distinction between them.
- DoctorOetker 8y ago
  "satisfied"?
- quotemstr 8y ago
  Satiated?
scarecrowbob 8y ago
"To maintain a consistent energy level, 5+ small snacks is better than 3 large meals." Anecdotally, that's not been my experience, except in the time periods when I've been transitioning between feeding on that short schedule and feeding once a day. I recognize that this experience is wholly anecdotal, but the only time that I've felt "paralyzed with starvation" is not when I am actually in starvation mode (that is, 48 or so hours of not eating, which I do every couple of months), but rather when I've been eating often and switch to eating less often. That is to say, when I used to have candy and donuts and juice as part of my diet, then I would occasionally crash and lots of smaller meals prevented that crash. In that case, your advice is good. In other cases, it doesn't fit my experience. When I am in a period where I am eating a single large meal every 24 hours or so (mostly rice and beans and some other plants with a lot of fat), then I don't feel those crashes at all. I don't eat outside of that meal except for a short period of time before or after. I occasionally feel hungry, but I generally on-point mentally, and certainly not "paralyzed with starvation". If I get out of that pattern (usually because I am traveling or around folks who prevent that kind of eating from happening) I will often need to go through a longer fast to get back into that daily eating schedule. So my hypothesis (untested, of course) is that most folks have never gone more than 24 hours without eating, so if they are crashing after 3-5h then that's specific to their diet and not a universal human constant.

firethief 8y ago

That's normal for vertibrates: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orexin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orexin