# hunger pang or pain?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hunger-pang-or-pain/25707>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 16, 2000, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hunger-pang-or-pain/25707 "2000-07-16T00:01:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![aha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eada6e/32.png) [@aha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aha)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2000, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hunger-pang-or-pain/25707/1 "2000-07-16T00:01:25Z")

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pang n 1: sudden sharp painful emotion; “pangs of regret” or “twinges of conscience” [syn: twinge] 2: a mental pain or distress; “a pang of conscience” [syn: sting] 3: a sharp spasm of pain.

That is what the dictionary describes as a pang. Notice it says a sharp spasm of pain.

I have never thought of that first feeling of hunger as a feeling of pain. Maybe I haven’t been hungry enough but it doesn’t seem like the same kind of thing that I think of when I think of pain.

Anyone got a better definition of hunger pang or what goes on in the brain when hunger sets in?