I call B.S. on being ‘hangry’ (Opinion)

We hear it all the time. That perfect portmanteau combing hunger and angry. It’s joked about. It’s warned about. A former boss swore he truly got in an uncontrollable bad mood if he didn’t eat in time.

May I please call bull$&!+ on this whole thing?

I’ve been angry. I’ve been hungry. I’ve never been angry because I was hungry. There are days I may have a single cheese stick at 6 a.m. and not eat again for 14 hours. I’ll feel the hunger. Never the anger.

Is this just a dumb invention for people to have yet another thing to complain about? Another thing to play victim to?

On Sunday police were called to a restaurant in Jersey City where they say a man became upset that his food order was taking too long. Authorities say Miraj Trivedi pulled a knife and made threats. He’s been charged with aggravated assault, unlawful possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, according to authorities.

Is hangry going to be his excuse? Is hangry going to become a criminal defense? Heck, in Italy an appeals court once ruled stealing food is not a crime if the person did it out of desperate hunger.

What does science say?

Dr. Kristin Lindquist, assistant professor at the department of psychology and neuroscience at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill was part of a study on the ‘hanger’ phenomenon.

Hunger as a state actually causes a lot of shifts in hormones, brain processes and the peripheral nervous system that are comparable to what we see in anger, fear and sadness,” explains Lindquist. “The reason we have emotions in the first place is to help our bodies maintain homeostasis. Your brain is always trying to monitor the body and make sure you’re in homeostasis and if you’re not, it sends a signal to the body that we have to shift some things. That shift out of homeostasis into this state [of needing food] is experienced as negative, [triggering] cascades of hormones like cortisol, fight or flight responses, and so on. Ultimately your brain is sending a signal to your body that things are not good and need to be figured out.

Don’t care. Still calling b.s.. Because she also said being hangry was something we’ve all experienced. Well she didn’t talk to everyone because I’ve never had it. I doubt you have, either. You just got in a bad mood and found a cute little word to let yourself off the hook for it.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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