The real reason why you're feeling hungry

GP Dr Camilla Stokholm reveals the surprising factors that increase our appetite, from childhood memories and drinks to our gut microbiome and even where we live

- HANNAH BRITT

Dr Camilla Stokholm was in good health and thought she had a great relationship with food until she moved to the UK from Denmark and became a doctor.

From following a broadly Mediterranean diet, she began eating convenience foods crammed with ultra-processed ingredients, sacrificing shopping and cooking time to devote herself to the long hours and high stress of the NHS.

The result was weight gain and debilitating IBS and then a period of clutching at straws to try to regain her health and previous positive relationship with food.

Initially Dr Stokholm turned to “fitfluencers” who recommended calorie restriction and a high-protein diet. But this approach, too, followed a diet that was packed with UPF. She didn't lose any weight and felt worse.

Then her mother gave her the 2016 book The Diet Myth by microbiome scientist and ZOE app founder Professor Tim Spector.

She was amazed by what she learned about how our gut influences so many aspects of hunger, appetite, health and weight. She switched from starving herself to eating to feed her microbiome, transforming her diet from ready meals into home-cooked, gut-friendly dishes.

She began sharing insights with patients and on social media, and now has almost 150,000 Instagram followers (@whatyourdoctoreats). A lucky few have even been invited into her own home for cooking classes.

Now in her new book, What Your Doctor Eats, Dr Stokholm shares science-backed insights into what, exactly, makes us hungry. Having a large appetite has nothing to do with being greedy, and is instead deter-mined by the complex relationship between genetics and lifestyle.

Here she shares the many factors that influence how peckish we feel, and how often we want to eat...

Willpower is a myth

One of the key messages in What Your Doctor Eats is that our weight and appetite isn't our fault.