Hedonic hunger or hedonic hyperphagia is the "drive to eat to obtain pleasure in the absence of an energy deficit". Particular foods may have a high "hedonic rating" or individuals may have increased susceptibility to environmental food cues. Weight loss programs may aim to control or to compensate for hedonic hunger. Therapeutic interventions may influence hedonic eating behavior.

Background

Although hunger may arise from energy or nutrient deficits, as would be expected in the set-point theories of hunger and eating, hunger may arise more commonly from anticipated

pleasure Pleasure is experience that feels good, that involves the enjoyment of something. It contrasts with pain or suffering, which are forms of feeling bad. It is closely related to value, desire and action: humans and other conscious animals find ...

of eating, consistent with the positive-incentive perspective. Gramlich distinguished the overeating responses to these stimuli as homeostatic hyperphagia and

hedonic Hedonism is a family of philosophical views that prioritize pleasure. Psychological hedonism is the theory that all human behavior is motivated by the desire to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. As a form of egoism, it suggests that people ...

hyperphagia respectively. Accordingly, hunger and eating are subject to feedback control from homeostatic, hedonic, and

cognitive Cognition is the "mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...

processes. Although these mechanisms interplay and overlap to some extent, they can nonetheless be individually separated. Thus, the positive-incentive perspective suggests that eating is similar to sexual behavior: humans engage in sexual behavior, not because of an internal deficit, but because they have evolved in a way that makes them crave it. High calorie foods have had intrinsic reward value throughout evolution. The presence of desirable (or "hedonic") food, or the mere anticipation of it, makes one hungry. The

psychological Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

effects of hedonic hunger may be the appetitive equivalent of hedonically driven activities such as

recreational drug use Recreational drug use is the use of one or more psychoactive drugs to induce an altered state of consciousness, either for pleasure or for some other casual purpose or pastime. When a psychoactive drug enters the user's body, it induces an Sub ...

and compulsive gambling. Susceptibility to food cues can lead to overeating in a society of readily available calorie dense, inexpensive foods. Such hedonistic eating overrides the body's ability to regulate consumption with satiety. While there is a breadth of evidence for hedonic hunger, this topic is not without controversy. For example, recent evidence suggests that there is no relationship between milkshake liking and

body mass index Body mass index (BMI) is a value derived from the mass (Mass versus weight, weight) and height of a person. The BMI is defined as the human body weight, body mass divided by the square (algebra), square of the human height, body height, and is ...

(BMI). A related phenomenon, specific appetite, also known as specific hunger, is conceptually related to, but distinct from, hedonic hunger. Specific appetite is a drive to eat foods with specific flavors or other characteristics: in usage, specific appetite has put greater emphasis on an individual who adaptationally learns a particular appetite behavior rather than an evolutionarily

innate {{Short pages monitor{{cite journal , vauthors=Witt AA, Lowe MR , year = 2014 , title = Hedonic Hunger and Binge Eating Among Women with Eating Disorders , journal = International Journal of Eating Disorders , volume = 47 , issue = 3, pages = 273–80 , doi=10.1002/eat.22171, pmid = 24014479 {{cite journal, last1=Yeomans, first1=MR, last2=Blundell, first2=JE, last3=Leshem, first3=M, title=Palatability: response to nutritional need or need-free stimulation of appetite?, journal=British Journal of Nutrition, date=Aug 2004, volume=92, issue=Suppl 1 , pages=S3-14, pmid=15384315, doi=10.1079/bjn20041134, doi-access=free Hedonism Hunger Motivation Neuropsychology Limbic system