Hangry
Do you ever get hangry?
Scientists have been researching the phenomenon of “hangryness”, where you become excessively irritable when you are hungry.
My partner,Kev, has learned to become very afraid if I’m left without food for too long, especially if we’re on a day trip. I can go from “Aren’t we having a lovely day, darling?” to “Get me out of this shithole and find me food or I will kill someone,” in as little as fifteen minutes.
The main reason we become more irritable when hungry is because our blood glucose level drops. This can make it difficult for us to concentrate, and more likely to snap at those around us. (Add that to women’s hormones and you get to the murder zone…)
Low blood sugar also triggers the release of stress-related hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, as well as a chemical with the catchy name of neuropeptide Y, which has been found to make people more aggressive towards others, even ones we dearly love.
The experiment I’d love to watch is where they studied married couples, and asked them to stick pins into “voodoo dolls” that represented their loved ones to reflect how angry they felt towards them whilst playing a game.
I’m not sure what the game was, but whoever won was allowed to blast loud noise through the loser’s headphones. The researchers tracked the participants’ blood glucose levels and they found that when people had lower sugar levels, the longer they blasted unpleasant noises at their spouses, and the more pins they stuck into their dolls.
You could actually sell tickets for shit like that!
I’m quite competitive and I hate losing games, but if I lost when I was hungry and Kev blasted loud noises into my headphones, I’d do a lot more than stick pins in a dolly.
He’d be walking funny for weeks!
So - little coaching tip - if you are going to play games with your loved ones, don’t blast an airhorn in their ears if you win, unless you have eaten first.
Also, they will hate you less if you shove a burger in their mouth whilst they are shouting at you.
Well, that’s the theory.
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