I stopped because nothing sounded right.

Food didn’t make me excited. It didn’t even make me neutral. It made me hesitate — like my body wasn’t sure it wanted the input.

I could be hungry in theory, but the moment I tried to eat, something felt off.

When appetite disappears without explanation, the body is often prioritizing survival over digestion.

What This Kind of Appetite Loss Actually Felt Like

This wasn’t a stomach bug or sudden aversion to one food.

It was a slow, global loss of interest in eating.

• Food looking fine but feeling unappealing
• Early fullness after only a few bites
• Mild nausea without vomiting
• A heavy or unsettled feeling after meals
• Needing to force myself to eat “because I should”

Meals became a task.

And because I wasn’t throwing up or in severe pain, it was easy to tell myself it wasn’t a real problem.

Digestive symptoms don’t need to be dramatic to be meaningful when they change your relationship with food.

Why Mold Can Quietly Shut Down Digestion

Digestion only works well when the nervous system feels safe.

When the body is stuck in fight-or-flight, blood flow and energy are redirected away from the gut.

Mold exposure can keep that stress response running in the background — even when you’re not consciously anxious.

• Nervous system dysregulation that suppresses hunger signals
• Inflammatory signaling that creates nausea or food aversion
• Circulatory shifts that slow digestion
• Stress hormones that blunt appetite

For me, appetite loss rarely stood alone.

It showed up alongside the racing heart and adrenaline surges I described in
why mold made my heart race and why doctors missed it,
the dizziness and lightheadedness in
why mold made me dizzy, lightheaded, and unsteady on my feet,
and the insomnia that left my body exhausted but alert in
why mold made it impossible for me to sleep even when I was exhausted.

When multiple systems downshift together, digestion is often one of the first to go.

Why This Gets Written Off So Easily

If you’re not vomiting, losing weight rapidly, or in severe pain, appetite changes tend to get minimized.

They’re blamed on stress, mood, or being “busy.”

But what didn’t get asked was why my appetite changed with location — not emotion.

When eating feels harder in one environment and easier in another, the trigger isn’t willpower.

The Pattern I Didn’t Recognize at First

Only later did the pattern become obvious:

• Appetite was worse at home
• Meals felt heavier after long indoor days
• Nausea paired with fatigue and brain fog
• Hunger slowly returned when I spent time away

I thought something was wrong with my stomach.

What was really happening was that my body didn’t feel safe enough to digest.

Your gut doesn’t just process food — it responds to threat.

What Helped — And What Didn’t

What didn’t help:

• Forcing large meals
• Ignoring appetite loss because it seemed minor
• Assuming this was purely emotional

What helped:

• Reducing exposure to the environment triggering shutdown
• Eating gently and consistently instead of forcing volume
• Supporting my nervous system rather than pushing digestion
• Recognizing appetite loss as a signal, not a failure

Hunger returned when my body stopped bracing — not when I tried harder to eat.

A Gentle Check-In

If food has stopped sounding right…

If eating feels like effort instead of nourishment…

If appetite changes follow where you are, not how you feel…

It may be worth considering whether your digestive system is responding to chronic environmental stress.

That realization reframed my symptoms completely.