Eating to live or living to eat: The meaning of hunger following gastric surgery

Abstract This paper is based upon interviews with twenty-seven women and men who have an inherited risk of developing gastric cancer and have had their stomach removed as a preventative measure. We describe what happens when bodily processes – digestion - are disrupted by the removal of the stomach. Interviewees' who had undergone total gastrectomy experienced changes to the lived experience of hunger and appetite. The interviewees’ accounts of life post-surgery suggested that private sensations of hunger disappeared following gastrectomy and an alternative sense of hunger developed; an externalised hunger, which is triggered by a range of external or public criteria rather than private sensations. We argue that this phantom desire for food, generated from without rather than within, serves the same purpose as internally generated feelings of hunger - it encourages eating, which sustains the body and enables individuals to participate in some form of commensal relationships which are important for the maintenance of social identity.