Member-only story
Your ‘Second Stomach’ Has a Loud Mouth
Navigating overlooked differences of fullness and satisfaction in our diets.
This piece is free to read in full on Substack, find it here.
I think most of us have had experiences of standing in the pantry scanning for a little sweet treat to top off our night even though we have just finished our dinner. Physically we aren’t hungry but that little voice in our heads still tells us to seek out something more.
It’s that second stomach that suddenly appears when dessert is brought around even though you swore you couldn’t possibly eat another bite of you meal just moments before.
Shockingly, and somewhat unfortunately, we do not have a secret second stomach that appears only in the presence of beautifully presented sweets. But rather, we have brains and bodies which are more likely to choose to eat or cease eating based on how satisfied we are over how physically full we might be.
For those of us who have followed diets and plans for years, you might have found yourself derailed before by this satisfaction seeking — calling it a lack of willpower. Equally, you might have learned to adhere to your diet at all cost and learned to ignore that voice at all cost, only to find that when the plan is removed it comes back ten fold and…
