I hope this doesn't seem like too stupid a question. I rarely see this
addressed in books on diet and nutrition, and I haven't taken any biology
courses.

What is actually physiologically going on when you experience hunger pangs,
or when your stomach is growling, burbling, and/or gurgling? I've heard
lots of people describe strong hunger in this way: "my stomach feels like
it's eating itself." Can hunger trigger digestive processes, even if
there's nothing to digest? And sometimes, the noises coming from people's
stomachs (including my own, on occasion) seem surprisingly loud. What's
actually happening to make such loud noise? I'm just wondering what that's
all about.

It's logical that our bodies would need a mechanism to alert us that we
need to eat. I'm just curious about what is physiologically going on. I'm
trying to learn to eat more instinctively, and becoming more alert to
subtle cues and clues about hunger is part of that.

Deborah