Thursday, March 24, 2016

This Afternoon on the Radio




I constantly keep an eye out for blog-inspiring material. Sometimes the inspiration comes from quotes or philosophical quotes that someone posts on Facebook. Other times the inspiration comes from a social event or a personal experience. Today’s inspiration came in the format of a radio discussion during the “Tech Talk” segment of the Gary and Shannon show on KFI AM 640. To my excitement, hosts Gary Hoffmann and Shannon Ferren discussed why people get “hangry” with Neil Saavedra, who hosts The Fork Report every weekend.

The first time I ever heard the expression, “hangry,” was in a 2014 television advertisement for American Express. In the ad, writer/performer Tina Fey stuffs a handful of potpourri into her mouth while paying for some groceries and explaining to the cashier how she gets angry when she is hungry. Similarly, the following year featured actress/performer Florence Henderson in a Snickers® Super Bowl advertisement in which The Brady Bunch mom encouraged daughter Marcia to eat a Snickers® bar because the teen gets “hostile” when she’s hungry.

Hunger—which is the most obvious “symptom” of low blood sugar—can also be accompanied by a variety of other physiological and psychological responses. According to Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D., low blood-sugar levels can trigger physical symptoms such as shaking, light-headedness and feeling tired and/or psychological symptoms such as depression, paranoia, irritability and memory problems. Dr. Kappas found an association between a person’s low blood-sugar levels and fluctuating suggestibility with the onset of a phobic response.

In this afternoon’s Tech Talk segment, Mr. Saavedra explained how our body responds and our corresponding behavior when blood-sugar levels drop, i.e., when we are hungry. He did not specifically address the relationship between blood-sugar levels and fear/phobic response, but much of what he described supported what I explained in one of my previous blogs, How This Snickers Ad Got It (Sort of) Right. He even explained why the popular chocolate bar would not be an ideal choice of nourishment when we are hungry, which I also discussed in that blog. I thought it was great that a popular radio program was addressing this physiological and behavioral response to hunger; talk about a captive audience. At one point, co-host Shannon Ferren commented that talking about food on the show was making her hungry. I bet she wasn’t the only one.

I’m sure that any number of listeners, likely stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic somewhere, was also hungry and frustrated at being unable to get off the road to get a meal during that broadcast. But even if they had been able to stop somewhere for food, how likely was it that they would hit the drive-through at a fast-food restaurant for a burger, fries and a sugary soda? Would anyone have opted to go to a grocery store and buy a healthier option with protein such as chicken salad or a package of sliced cheese or almonds? How many of those drivers were sipping on a latte with a couple ad-shots of espresso or munching on a snack-bar that they stowed in the glove compartment for those kinds of food emergencies on the road?

As I write this blog, I wonder how many road-rage incidents are sparked or exacerbated because one or all parties involved in the conflict are hungry. Hunger is not an excuse for road rage or any other kind of violence, but would it explain the extreme volatile reaction to some extent? When you combine the psychological stress of a personal frustration such as driving in heavy traffic while we are physiologically compromised (low blood-sugar level), is it any surprise when tempers flare?

This broadcast was definitely food for thought. Pun intended.




Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
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