Small bites deliver big in fall party spread
Hunger is a powerful word. It can mean a physical, deep craving for food. Or it can signify a longing or eagerness for something entirely unrelated, such as a hunger for knowledge, for power, to go home, or for love.
The word is fraught with meaning not only because satisfying hunger is something humans need to do every day but also because it is experienced tragically by people around the world whose hunger is rarely satisfied.
We often overstate our own hunger by saying, “I’m starving…” or “famished...” or “ravenous.” Or we say, “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.”
But are we “hedonic” or “homeostatic” hungry at any given moment?
“Homeostatic hunger is driven by a complex series of signals throughout the body and brain that tell us we need food for fuel,” says Amy Rothberg, director of the Weight Management Clinic and assistant professor of internal medicine in the University of Michigan Health System’s Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Diabetes.
On LiveScience.com, Rothberg explains that hormones such as ghrelin — the hunger hormone — let us know when our energy is flagging and we need to eat. Hunger-suppressing peptides then thankfully start taking over when our stomachs are getting full and signal us to stop eating.
That is, unless we consume foods that don’t fill us up, as in ultraprocessed stuff with lots of fat and sugar. As delicious as they are, these foods actually have the opposite effect and make us crave more, by overwhelming those appetite-suppression hormones.
The word “hedonism” has its origin in the Greek words for pleasure, hedone, and hedys, meaning sweet. Drexel University psychology professor Michael Lowe says that hedonic hunger (a term he coined in a 2007 scientific paper) means intense cravings or obsession with eating and is not as well understood as homeostatic hunger.
“The most widely accepted theory about hedonic hunger is that human predisposition to highly palatable foods, which humans developed long ago, has run amok in the modern environment, with wide availability of really delicious foods,” Lowe writes in his paper.
“People want to eat even when they don’t need to. And the more often people eat highly palatable foods, the more their brains learn to expect and want them.”
But the good news is we’re mostly all self-indulgent and pleasure seeking sometimes — that’s what makes us human.
Sarah Nelson, co-owner with her sister Brooke Boomer of The Ruby Tap Wine Bar in Mequon and Wauwatosa, hosts several special events a month.
She suggested four recipes she uses for these events, all perfect for a fallseason small-plates gathering and all healthy, filling and satisfying while also appeasing that hedonic hunger with great flavor:
Vine-ripe sweet tomatoes in a chilled soup, combined with an herb-infused velvety crème fraiche.
Moroccan Lamb Meatballs with minted yogurt sauce. Stuff the meatballs in pita bread for a great sandwich.
And for gratifying that pure hedonic hunger, there are soppressata slices rolled into small cones filled with creamy, tangy goat cheese. Add radicchio, peperoncini and pine nuts (full of calcium, iron, protein and fatty acids that help curb appetite), and we can call these tasty bites healthy and filling, too.
Blue Cheese Stuffed Figs also rack up healthy, satisfying and hedonic points just for sounding decadent and mouthwatering. Drizzled with balsamic, they’re so yummy they could be dessert.
Whatever the hedonic or homeostatic food experience you offer your family or friends, savor every moment, every bite and every sip.
Amy DeWall Dadmun is a Milwaukee area food and garden writer. Email her at amydadmun@gmail.com.