horizon wrote:Just a thought but it may not be calories per se or quantity you are after but a certain type of food ingredient e.g. a vitamin or mineral (or, as someone has said, water). You may not know what that is but your body might and keeps you hungry until you satisfy it. Maybe just salt for example or what might be contained in a vegetable. I could throw in here the idea that much of what we eat today is a bit depleted due to agro-farming, but that's to back up the point, not to start on that track.
This is just an idea of mine - no evidence or anything.
I have heard similar ideas from many sources (can't quote references or anything). It was one thought proposed as a major contribution to obesity - people eat the wrong/bad foods full of calories but lacking vitamins and minerals so their bodies still crave food so they eat even more rubbish lacking vitamins and minerals, etc. Result, loads and loads of calories, not enough vitamins/minerals so body still craves more.
Vorpal wrote:It's a reasonable supposition & I would recommend that anyone in that situation give in to cravings. Even if you just think a particular food sounds especially good, make a point of getting and eating it. Our bodies often know what we need, even if there are only limited means of communication!
From my camping and student days, I think one risk is that when you get very hungry you eat what you have rather than what you crave. Or you crave food rather than specific things. I assume if self-catering touring you will tend to be limited unless you have a decent shop nearby. I know that even when I get really hungry, local village shops tend to resolve the hunger as after a wander around one I find nothing I fancy so give-up (some old mass produced cheapo cakes in boxes containing more preservative than anything else, maybe a manky orange of apple, etc. all at massively over-inflated prices ...).
Ian