The first is physical stomach. Belly, tummy, gastric space, abdomen, you name it. This one's quite simple, you fill it with quantity. How you feel filled depends on the amount, density, and type of the food and beverage you consume. A bow of rice will fills you more than a bowl of congee. Sandwich constructed with whole-grain bread will last you longer than a sandwich of the same type made with white bread.
The other one is psychological stomach. Filling this one isn't quite so simple as we're dealing with quality here. Some of the contributing factors are taste, temperature, preference, nutritional value, and... love.
- Taste is the quality of the food itself. Fried food should be crunchy and not greasy, curry shouldn't be too watery, salsas packs some heat, properly seasoned in general, etc.
- Temperature plays bigger role in food's quality than you think. Starches harden when cool, ice cream melts when its temperature raise, soft drinks taste sweeter in room temperature, baked goods lose their fragrant after cooled down, etc.
- You can eat veggies all day because you think that's all you need to be healthy, but if your body needs protein, it'll keep sending hunger sign. For the same reason, heavily processed food such as frozen food, canned food, and microwave meal should be avoided as they're barely contain any nutrition.
- Then we have preference, we all do. All those things aforementioned would mean a little if you're eating something you don't like in the first place. A golden brown fried prawn fresh from the fryer sounds good, but if you dislike seafood, you won't be happy eating it. Preference is also tricky because you can be happier eating a slightly soggy, salty french fries if you prefer it that way rather than a modestly salted one.
- We're talking about psychological, conceptual things here so I'm pretty sure love also plays a part in boosting eating satisfaction. Love in food can be perceived in two ways, love as in the cook's love for cooking that push them to put extra effort to make the food delicious or knowing someone who you hold dearly is the one who made the food you're eating. Eating a bowlful of mom-made chicken soup fills you... with determination.
Now, there's another point I'd like to raise. Have you heard about comfort food? Going with my personal viewpoint about how a food can be counted as a comfort food, it has to: commonly eaten among people of a region, readily available, cheap, served in big portion, warm, a household staple, and something you long for when homesick. Japan has Ramen and Kare Rice, America has Hamburger and Meatloaf, Italia has Spaghetti in Tomato Sauce with Meatball and Ratatouille, while Indonesia, my country, has Nasi Goreng and Soto Ayam to name a few. Oh, and Indomie, especially the ones with egg. Warm food in big portion obviously would fill anyone who eats it but that isn't all what makes comfort food so filling. Comfort food has emotional connection with its fans. Only by eating it, you can feel at home, no matter where you actually are. It's among some of the very first food you has been eating since childhood, cooked by your mother or grandma. With all those thing combined, it's a choke full of emotional filling.
However, all the fancy talk above would matter a little if you don't have hunger. Without hunger, there would be no stomach to be filled, to feel satisfaction. Lots of people these day eat when they feel bored, not because they're hungry, resulting in overeating and excessive leftover. And the worst part is, we're so accustomed to it that we're having hard time telling apart hunger to boredom.
People are constantly in the shadow of hunger. By knowing what caused them, we'll have better chance to win the fight.
