Listening to the Language of the Gut
Why do our stomachs growl? Experts weigh in.
Aug. 20, 2008— -- It may happen in the middle of a meeting or simply while sitting around with friends: that low, rumbling sound that lets you -- and everyone around you -- know that you're hungry.
But is that occasionally embarrassing growling noise really signaling hunger, or is it caused by something else?
Tragically, in the vast swaths of funding for health and nutrition research, it doesn't appear that much (if any) money has been spent attempting to decipher once and for all what may be the world's most widely spoken language.
"A rumbling stomach cannot be assumed to mean your body needs food," said Dr. David Katz, director of the prevention research center at Yale University School of Medicine. "Your stomach speaks an ancient language, so it requires some thoughtful interpretation before you rush to conclusions -- or the fridge."
Katz explains that those noises from your middle may have a variety of causes.
"An empty stomach can be triggered to rumble by the hormones that regulate appetite, among them leptin and ghrelin. So a stomach will rumble when hunger sets in."
"It will also rumble after eating, at which time the churning is about digestion, not ingestion," he said.
"Finally, a very appetizing aroma can elicit an appetite response that has nothing to do with hunger, per se. The responses can range from the proverbial salivation to stomach rumbling. But this does not mean your body 'needs' food," he said.
Katz said those rumblings probably evolved in a period when food was not readily available. While calories might be plentiful in the modern-day United States, it seems stomachs still want to speak up and be counted.
The various growling sounds seem to have a few causes. The common rumbling of our stomachs, according to Katz, is caused by bands in the stomach, called rugae, that contract in order to help digest food.
Others place the source of some noises in the intestines.
"What you are hearing is the movement of your intestines and the passage of gas through them -- a totally normal process," said Dr. Roshini Rajapaksa, a gastroenterologist at NYU Medical Center.
In addition to those identified by Katz, she added an additional potential source for your digestive system's need to communicate.
"Growling may be caused by other things, like an infection, which causes excessive intestinal movement," she said.
