Category Archives: Things

It’s Amazing!

Reading, Things, ,

I’ve had this book since I was in grade school. I only just now realized that it belonged to my Aunt Ginny. I thought it was something I picked at a school book sale, or through the Weekly Reader books. No, this book was published in 1958. Aunt Ginny would have been thirteen years old. I am sure I read it cover-to-cover at least once. It’s no wonder I became an insufferable know-it-all as a kid.

The book is part of a series based on an old newspaper column called It’s Amazing (Tell Me Why). There is not much about the column on the Internet.

Knowing that this belonged to Aunt Ginny changes my thoughts about it. I’d planned on donating it, but now I am torn. I want to check it to see what has changed since 1958.

What Makes Us Hungry?

According to ChatGPT, this chapter is a mixed bag:

“Hunger has nothing to do with an empty stomach.”

Modern science: Not true.

An empty stomach absolutely contributes to hunger, although it isn’t the whole story.

As your stomach empties it:

  • stretches less
  • produces the hormone ghrelin, which signals the brain that it’s time to eat
  • generates contractions (“stomach growling” or borborygmi)

However, people can have an empty stomach and not feel hungry (during illness, stress, or after intense exercise), so the authors weren’t completely wrong—they just overstated it.

Better modern version: Hunger is influenced by both an empty stomach and signals from the brain and hormones.

⚠️ “Hunger begins when certain foods are missing in the blood.”

Partly true, but outdated.

Scientists in the 1950s thought the brain mostly detected shortages of nutrients in the blood.

Today we know hunger comes from many signals, including:

  • ghrelin from the stomach
  • leptin from body fat
  • insulin
  • blood glucose
  • amino acids
  • gut hormones (GLP-1, PYY, CCK)
  • learned eating habits
  • sight and smell of food
  • stress and sleep

So blood nutrients are only one piece of the puzzle.

⚠️ “The hunger center works like a brake on the stomach.”

Partly true.

There isn’t a single “hunger center.”

Instead, several areas of the brain—especially the hypothalamus—work together to regulate hunger.

The brain does communicate with the stomach and intestines through nerves (especially the vagus nerve), but it’s much more of a two-way conversation than the book suggests.

✅ “When the stomach becomes more active you hear rumbling.”

This is basically correct.

Stomach growling comes from muscular contractions moving air and liquid through the stomach and intestines. It often happens when you’re hungry because of the migrating motor complex, but it can also happen after you’ve eaten.

❌ “When we are hungry, our body doesn’t crave any special kind of food.”

We now know this isn’t always true.

People can develop cravings because of:

  • experience
  • emotions
  • hormones
  • availability
  • culture

Whether the body specifically craves nutrients (like salt when sodium is low) is more complicated. Most everyday cravings are not direct signs of nutrient deficiency.

⚠️ “Appetite makes us eat a variety of foods.”

There’s actually some truth here.

Modern nutrition recognizes sensory-specific satiety:

  • You get tired of one flavor.
  • A different flavor becomes appealing.
  • This helps encourage a varied diet.

Their potato/soup/meat/dessert example is an early description of this idea, although it’s simplified.

Overall

For a children’s book published in 1958, I’d give it a surprisingly good score.

StatementToday
Empty stomach doesn’t matter❌ Incorrect
Blood nutrients influence hunger⚠️ Partly true
Brain regulates hunger✅ Correct, but oversimplified
Stomach rumbling accompanies hunger✅ Mostly correct
Appetite encourages dietary variety✅ Largely correct

I’d say about 60–70% accurate by today’s standards. The biggest change since 1958 is that we’ve learned hunger isn’t controlled by a single “hunger center” responding only to nutrients in the blood. Instead, it’s regulated by a complex network of hormones, nerves, the digestive tract, body fat, metabolism, emotions, habits, and the brain.

I may or may not continue this fact-checking. Stay tuned. Or not…

Mom’s Artwork::Exhibit 13: Rickshaw Driver

Family, Memories, Things, ,

This image of a man in (Vietnam?) hung in the living room of my childhood home. I think it was Vietnam because the war was in full swing at the time and the magazines were printing photos of people there. Like the Woman at Night, mom probably found a photo and painted it. Again, it was unusual that a small town white family in the midwest would have a painting of an Asian person on their wall, especially if he were Vietnamese. I cannot imagine my cousin, Harold, would have been happy. I liked it though.

I always through he looked like a family friend:

This painting, like the Woman at Night, will go into storage since there is nowhere to hang it here.

Mom’s Artwork::Exhibit 12: Portrait of a Woman at Night

Family, Things, ,

Sometime before Christmas 1969 my mom painted the portrait of an African American woman standing under a street lamp at night. I am pretty sure she found a photo in Life or Look Magazine and made a painting of it. She was always looking through magazines and cutting out interesting photos. She had at least one file cabinet full of clippings and magazines.

This painting hung on the wall near the front door for a few years. I was proud of mom for this painting. At the time I thought it was well done, plus it was of someone that didn’t look like us. I think she captured something in the woman’s expression. Is she sad? Angry? Tired?

I was proud that our home displayed a painting of an African American woman.

This was painted during the civil unrest of the late 1960s — possibly in 1968 even where there were riots even in our hometown after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.

I wish I had available wall space to hang this painting, but the walls in the attic are too low. I’ll store it and let Andrew and Clare decide its fate.