SULT, APPETIT OG MÆTHED: Mellem biologi og kultur

Abstract

Søren Tange Kristensen: Hunger,

Appetite and Satiety: Between Biology

and Culture

The number of people developing overweight

and obesity is inereasing, as is the

prevalence of eating disorders and weight

preoccupation. These tendencies can be

considered as expressing a polarisation of

eating habits in modern societies, where lack

of control or exaggerated Control over eating

are still more common phenomena. At the

same time, the tendencies may be seen as the

result of a more general ambivalence in

relation to food, which influences the

experience of appetite and its regulating

effeet on food consumption. So far,

regulation of appetite has primarily been

examined by nutritional scientists on a

physiological level. However, the subjective

experience of hunger, appetite, and satiety

can also be seen as constituted and regulated

on the individual and social level. The aim of

the article is to show how appetite can be

seen as a central research subject, both as the

locus where food consumption is bodily

regulated and as the nexus where biology,

social rules, and cultural meanings meet and

are negotiated by the individual.