Very interesting new research shows what many people already know and Snickers has capitalized on in an ad campaign that started in 2010, “You’re not you when you’re hungry.” Snickers’ brilliant commercials feature people who turn into other people because they’re hungry. In one version, a football player gets called out by one of his teammates for playing like Betty White who stars in the commercial. In other versions, people become a diva or even a gremlin.
It’s great advertising because it presents a problem that people commonly experience and then offers a quick (and delicious) solution. Who doesn’t want that? People already know that when you get hungry, your mood can change. Some people get irritable, others can’t concentrate, some people get downright angry. Hungry + angry = HANGRY. Hangry might not sound like a good thing, but remember your body is AMAZING!!
Your body is smart!!! There’s always a reason why it does what it does, whether you like what it is doing or not. When you haven’t eaten for a while, the amount of sugar (actually glucose) in your blood goes down. Your body makes glucose out of the food you eat and in turn uses it to provide energy for your cells. When your blood sugar drops enough, it triggers your body to increase the production of two other chemicals: cortisol (stress hormone) and adrenaline (fight or flight hormone). These chemicals can provide
you with the energy you need when your blood sugar runs low. AMAZING right!?!
Your body is a little chemical factory. It’s constantly adjusting the production of numerous chemicals to prepare itself for what it thinks might be next. In this case, cortisol and adrenaline are produced to increase the amount of sugar in your blood because you need glucose to think, be coordinated, and run your cells efficiently. Unfortunately, both cortisol and adrenaline can also make you aggressive and irritable… hangry.
It’s important to understand, that while it’s true that you can’t be you when you’re hungry, it’s not being hungry that’s the problem. The problem is the imbalance in your body chemistry that being hungry causes. Your body is so AMAZING that it’s constantly making, altering, and destroying compounds to keep an ideal balance of over 100 different chemicals. It’s only when your chemistry is imbalanced that things go kerflooey. Anytime your chemistry is off, you cannot be YOU. Hunger is just one reason why your body chemistry can be off. Other reasons include lack of sleep and taking drugs.
Another common reason for imbalanced body chemistry is disruption in your nerve system. You see, chemicals are made by glands and glands produce specific chemicals as directed by your brain via your nerve system. If there is any disruption to your nerve system, the glands may not be properly directed to the specific quality and quantity of any given chemical to make. That would also result in you not being you. Your family chiropractor can help you with that. He or she will check your spine for misalignments, called vertebral subluxations, that disrupt the function of your nerve system and can interfere with the messages going to the glands that control your body chemistry. You can’t be you if you’re subluxated either, so see your family chiropractor regularly.
And by the way, to be your most AMAZING you, don’t think that a Snickers bar makes for a reasonable dinner. It doesn’t. It never has and it’s never going to. It may be good advertising but no parent in the world is going to fall for that.
—By Judy Nutz Campanale, DC, ACP
