Food drunkenness is the physiological state of a person after consuming large amounts of food.

Historical meaning

The use of the word "drunk" to signify being overcome by substances other than

alcohol Alcohol most commonly refers to: * Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom * Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks Alcohol may also refer to: Chemicals * Ethanol, one of sev ...

is long-established, e.g. drunk with

opium Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...

(1585), or with

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

(1698). In October 1905,

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventio ...

(then 58 years old) declared that "the country is food drunk.... the people eat too much and sleep too much, and don't work enough". Citing the theories of

Louis Cornaro Alvise Cornaro, often Italianised Luigi (1484, 1467 or 1464 gives a birth date of 1467 – 8 May 1566), was a Venetian nobleman and patron of arts, also remembered for his four books of ''Discorsi'' (published 1583–95) about the secrets to ...

(born 1464), Edison explained how an assistant had been so affected by experiments with

X-ray An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...

s that "doctors had to amputate one limb after another.... and finally he died". Thomas Edison also stated that by reducing his food intake to a day, at the end of two months he weighed just as much as when he began, exactly . The phrase was echoed by Dr J E Rullfson of Toledo after fasting for sixty days from January 5, 1907. He holds that the entire human race is food drunk, saying "the dinner eaten by Napoleon just before the

Battle of Leipzig The Battle of Leipzig (french: Bataille de Leipsick; german: Völkerschlacht bei Leipzig, ); sv, Slaget vid Leipzig), also known as the Battle of the Nations (french: Bataille des Nations; russian: Битва народов, translit=Bitva ...

proved so indigestible that the monarch's brain was clouded and as a result the battle was lost and a pie which King Philip failed to digest caused the revolt of the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

State of being food drunk

When people overeat, their bodies have the tendency to chemically change, including metabolic shifts. There are also electrolyte imbalances due to the process of digestion that occur once the massive amounts of food have been deposited into the body. This can also cause a feeling of depression, emotional attachment to food, fatigue, and also boredom. This is hypothesized to be partially due to dopamine and endorphin release after food consumption (especially

spicy food Pungency () refers to the taste of food commonly referred to as spiciness, hotness or heat, found in foods such as chili peppers. Highly pungent tastes may be experienced as unpleasant. The term piquancy () is sometimes applied to foods with a l ...

s).

References

Physiology Eating behaviors of humans {{food-stub

Historical meaning

State of being food drunk

See also

References