ABSTRACT
Hunger and appetite are phenomena that have always been central to the study of motivation. They both belong to the domain of psychological inquiry that seeks to find the reasons underlying the actions of human beings and animals. When food consumption reduces hunger and inhibits further eating, two processes are involved. For technical precision and conceptual clarity it is useful to describe the distinction between “satiation” and “satiety”. Hunger declines as satiation develops and usually reaches its lowest point at the end of a meal. The concept of the satiety cascade implies that foods of varying nutritional composition will have different effects on the mediating processes and will therefore exert differing effects on satiation and satiety. There is a disorderly relationship between the profile of hunger and the pattern of eating. This labile or unregulated hunger reflects a pathology of appetite.
