Hunger, eating, and ill health

Humans and other warm-blooded animals living with continuous access to a va riety of good-tasting foods tend to eat too much and suffer ill health as a result-a finding that is incompatible with the widely held view that hunge r and eating are compensatory processes that function to maintain the body' s energy resources at a set point. The authors argue that because of the sc arcity and unpredictability of food in nature, humans and other animals hav e evolved to eat to their physiological limits when food is readily availab le, so that excess energy can be stored in the body as a buffer against fut ure food shortages. The discrepancy between the environment in which the hu nger and eating system evolved and the food-replete environments in which m any people now live has led to the current problem of overconsumption exist ing in many countries. This evolutionary perspective has implications for u nderstanding the etiology of anorexia nervosa.