Do you remember that time when you had not eaten anything all day and it triggered your senses and made led your anger to an extreme new level. So, there is no need to think of yourself as the Hulk, science proves that it actually is a human emotion.
The word “hanger” has been thrown around and slapped as a label to those who throw tantrums that could rival toddlers and, given to those whose irritability grows with every tummy rumble. So much so that it was even made an official word in the dictionary last year.
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A Lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics at King’s College London, Sophie Medlin, explained their findings surrounding hanger.
“We’ve long recognised that hunger leads to irritability in science,” she said during an interview on the Radio.
“But the wonderful world of social media has merged the two words for us and now we know it as ‘hanger’. When our blood sugars drop, cortisol and adrenaline rise up in our bodies, our fight or flight hormones.”
These hormones are responsible for triggering a release of small, protein-like molecules called neuropeptides, which impacts the way the brain works.
“The ones that trigger for hunger are the same ones that trigger for anger and rage and impulsive type behaviours,” Medlin says. “So that’s why you get that sort of same response.”
The research found that hunger causes an increase in neuropeptide Y, which is interconnected to feelings of aggression.
A study from 2014 found that low glucose levels relates to greater aggression in married couples. Which led to scientists to advise couples to resolve challenging issues on a full stomach, rather than an empty one.
Additionally, another study found that 62% of people make the wrong decisions when they’re ‘hangry’.