# Can eating an apple make you hungrier & why
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-eating-an-apple-make-you-hungrier-why/173329
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 6, 2003, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-eating-an-apple-make-you-hungrier-why/173329 "2003-05-06T03:45:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Scorpio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scorpio)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2003, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-eating-an-apple-make-you-hungrier-why/173329/1 "2003-05-06T03:45:14Z")
It sometimes seems that if you’re a little bit hungry and eat an apple, a short time later, you’re very very hungry - why does this happen?
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2003, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-eating-an-apple-make-you-hungrier-why/173329/2 "2003-05-06T04:16:51Z")
Are you speaking from personal experience, or something you’ve read…?
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### Author:  [@Scorpio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scorpio)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2003, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-eating-an-apple-make-you-hungrier-why/173329/3 "2003-05-06T05:31:11Z")
My partner’s personal experience. He wants to know.
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### Author:  [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2003, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-eating-an-apple-make-you-hungrier-why/173329/4 "2003-05-06T05:41:56Z")
I’ve noticed that too. I don’t think it’s really hunger, but I think there’s something in apples can give me mild stomach pain that feels similar to hunger.
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### Author:  [@something\_clever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/something_clever)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2003, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-eating-an-apple-make-you-hungrier-why/173329/5 "2003-05-06T05:47:39Z")
does it happen only with apples or anything else?
i could go all day without eating… but if i eat even the smallest thing, it’ll make me hungrier…
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### Author:  [@Scorpio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scorpio)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2003, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-eating-an-apple-make-you-hungrier-why/173329/6 "2003-05-06T06:04:27Z")
Ah, see, he’s not crazy!
I think mainly apples and perhaps other fruit of that ilk. Maybe snacking gets the juices going and makes the stomach want more…
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### Author:  [@bugg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bugg)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2003, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-eating-an-apple-make-you-hungrier-why/173329/7 "2003-05-06T06:36:30Z")
Me too, and my mother always said it was because a snack raised your blood sugar levels, and then when they started to drop again you became hungry.
It’s certainly believable.
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### Author:  [@Scorpio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scorpio)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2003, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-eating-an-apple-make-you-hungrier-why/173329/8 "2003-05-06T06:48:56Z")
It certainly is. Thanks for the theories everyone.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2003, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-eating-an-apple-make-you-hungrier-why/173329/9 "2003-05-06T07:59:20Z")
I’ve noticed this too; I believe that it is (as you suggest) because the apple stimulates your digestion - various digestive juices, (including saliva) are produced in greater quantity than would be required to break down the nutrients in the apple.
Why does this not happen (so much) with other fruits, such as an orange? - I think the answer may be that an apple requires much more _chewing_ than many other fruits and the action of chewing something juicy and tasty stimulates the production of more saliva.
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### Author:  [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2003, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-eating-an-apple-make-you-hungrier-why/173329/10 "2003-05-06T08:14:17Z")
Could it also be connected to the difference between the apple’s large size and small number of calories? After eating one, you feel full because you’ve now got a large mass sitting in your stomach, but because you’re not getting back much energy when it digests, your body quickly switches back to ‘feed me’ mode?
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### Author:  [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2003, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-eating-an-apple-make-you-hungrier-why/173329/11 "2003-05-06T13:27:48Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by bugg \*
> **Me too, and my mother always said it was because a snack raised your blood sugar levels, and then when they started to drop again you became hungry.**
This is the theory I’ve worked with, and it seems borne out by my experience.
If I eat an apple by itself in the morning, in a few hours I’ll be VERY hungry and shaky. If, however, I eat an apple with cashew butter (never tried cashew butter? You should; it’s great!), then I don’t get that starving/shaky feeling later. I believe it is because the apple is relatively simple carbohydrdates which the body quickly breaks down and burns, thereby boosting the metabolism. When the apple is all gone, your blood sugar drops and you start to feel hungry. But, add the cashew butter into the mix, and your body then has the more complex carbs and proteins of the nuts to work with after the apple is gone.
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### Author:  [@papergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/papergirl)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2003, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-eating-an-apple-make-you-hungrier-why/173329/12 "2003-05-06T13:30:52Z")
Personal experience:
Apples make me hungry AND they give me hiccups.
Go figure.
Best,
karol
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### Author:  [@hedra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hedra)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2003, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-eating-an-apple-make-you-hungrier-why/173329/13 "2003-05-06T15:07:47Z")
Dang, lost my post.
1. Bloodsugar spikes can cause hiccups. When I was pregnant, eating a candy bar used to give my son hiccups.
2. Apples have a higher glycemic load than oranges. A high glycemic load (more than just the index, it is the index multiplied by the amount of carbs in the serving size) means a higher blood-sugar surge, which means it is more likely that you’ll max out your current circulating insulin, and your body will pump out more to take you back to normal. But if there’s too sudden a jump, or too high, your body may put out too much insulin, which then means the sugar gets used up, and you’ve still got insulin running around, lowering your blood sugar below your norm. So your body says FEED ME, to take up the extra insulin.
By the way, that extra bloodsugar that is processed by the surge of insulin is usually converted to fat.
After I started eating low GI foods as a major part of my diet, my reaction to apples went away. If I eat a particularly sweet one, or a large one, I still get hungries later. But usually, no.
See [www.glycemicindex.com](http://www.glycemicindex.com) for more info (University of Sydney GI site).
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### Author:  [@KnK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KnK)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2003, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-eating-an-apple-make-you-hungrier-why/173329/14 "2003-05-06T16:07:17Z")
I dont experience this phenomenon from apples, but I DO experience more hunger after eating a bag of popcorn, or a nice size steak!
WHat’s up with that???
KnK:confused: 😕 😕