FILL'ER UP

*Americans eat 7,620 chickens per minute.

*Americans consume more than 2 billion pounds of chocolate each year.

*The average person will digest around 50 tons of food in a lifetime.

GUT REACTION

Your body is constantly using up energy and nutrients in order to keep functioning. Thanks to a region of your brain called the hypothalamus, you'll know when it's time to replenish the stores of energy and nutrients you depleted throughout your busy day. The appestat section in your hypothalamus recognizes when you're running on empty, releasing hormones like ghrelin and glucagons that cause a feeling of hunger, with symptoms like a growling stomach, headache, or fatigue. These hormones travel from your brain down to your stomach with the urgent message, "I'm hungry. Feed me!" The longer you go without eating, the more intense your hunger pangs will get because hunger builds up in your stomach over time.

Once you've eaten enough to quiet the hunger hormones' screams, your digestive organs send another hormone called lepton back up to the brain saying, "Don't feed me any more. I'm perfectly satisfied with what I've had." This feeling of fullness is called satiety. Our bodies are designed this way to tell us when we've had enough to eat, but we don't always listen.

Since no two people are alike, different people require different amounts of food to feel satiety. A person's metabolism (how fast the body digests and burns calories), activity, and even mood affect how much one needs to eat to feel that satisfying, pleasant feeling of a full stomach. Now please excuse me while I indulge in piece of chocolate cake--my hypothalamus is calling.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

In addition to giving us delicious food (and a hypothalamus), God challenges us to practice moderation. Even though we are permitted--and even encouraged--to enjoy the world around us, Judaism teaches us to sanctify our actions. We say a berakhah to thank God for our food and we control our desire to overeat. As the Ramban tells us, "one should guard one's mouth and tongue from defilement by excessive food and lewd speech" (Ramban on Vayikra 19:1). Strive for holiness by tuning in to your hypothalamus the next time it says, "You can stop feeding me now. I'm satisfied."