Truckers probably don’t know the impulses that lead them to eat with exaggeration. Demanding schedules, road stress and eating whenever they can will cause harmful consequences to their body. But knowing the differences between physical hunger and emotional hunger can help make the right decisions when eating. It’ll help control their impulses and avoid excesses that could have consequences for their health, such as being overweight, diabetes, etc.

The instinct of physical hunger is regulated by the sympathetic nervous system that has the objective of acquiring energy for the body. Anxiety, on the other hand, has no nutritional objective for the body. Anxiety is always on a quest to satisfy something related to the feelings, anguish or emotions that the trucker suffers.

Physical Hunger (real):
1. - It happens gradually, from less to more. It happens when the body has to recover energy, since with the passage of hours the body burns and uses the accumulated calorie reserves.
2. - Any type of food could be consumed, because what the body seeks is to replenish energy. It wouldn’t be limited to a choice specific meal.
3. - When the truckers feel physical hunger, they only contribute to their body what the body is really requiring, stopping to eat when the feeling of being satisfied is reached.
4. - Doesn’t cause a sense of guilt, since the individual eats to satisfy a physiological need.

Emotional hunger (due to anxiety):
5. - Anxiety causes constant feeling of hunger, it’s like a constant desire, crave and desperate to eat. Truckers will want to eat even after finishing their food and their bodies are satisfied. And they’ll end up eating more than their body need.
6. - Truck drivers want to eat a lot of carbohydrates or processed foods that tend to have a high level of sugars and fat.
7. - Can cause addiction to the consumption of unhealthy foods.
8. - After consuming an unnecessary and unhealthy amounts of carbohydrates and high calorie foods, the individual will feel guilty.
9. - Truck drivers will feel that their bodies are heavy and their routine on the road will be affected.

Possibly many truck drivers are overweight or obese because they are very anxious and end up emotionally hungry, eating more than they should and choosing foods that do not suit them.

In each truck stop truck drivers have different food options and they must know how to choose what they should eat, without pretexts. If you have trouble deciding, we advise you to seek professional help. Eating foods with lots of fiber, such as vegetables and fruits, helps reduce anxiety and prevent disease.