History Main / AppetiteEqualsHealth

-->"Worry about that later! Let' go back to the inn, we are missing breakfast!" Cathy suggested, tugging insistently on the smaller girl's sleeve.\\

* In ''Fanfic/TheSeasonsMyReason'', [[Anime/DeliciousPartyPrettyCure Rosemary]]'s illness is first indicated via him being unable to eat breakfast due to nausea. Of course, coming from a food-based kingdom and being a BigEater, he gets very scared and worries he may never be able to eat again.

* Inverted in ''Film/{{Alien}}'', when John Hurt's character is sitting down to dinner with a hearty appetite, the reason isn't that he's healthy, but (unbeknownst to the hapless victim) he's really eating for two... cue the ChestBurster.

* In ''Literature/LittleWomen'', Beth's appetite becomes "capricious" during [[spoiler: her last year of life.]]
* In the kids book ''Mumps'', the first sign that the boy has the titular disease is him saying, "I'm not hungry".
* In the ''Literature/RoysBedoys'' book "Get Well Soon, Roys Bedoys", the title character is sick with what appears to be either a serious cold or a very mild flu. He is offered [[SoupIsMedicine chicken soup]], but doesn't want it as his appetite is gone.

* In ''[[Literature/TheShakespeareStealer Shakespeare's Scribe]]'', Widge, a former doctor's apprentice, examines a girl name Tetty who fears she's caught the plague. After a brief inspection for plague symptoms, finding none, Widge asks if she's lost her appetite. She confirms she's hungry, reassuring her that she's not plague-infected.

* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'': Elaine hears that an ex-boyfriend of hers is deathly ill and goes to visit him in the hospital. She had previously broken up with him for being too fat, but his illness has made him lose his appetite, so he is now skinny. Finding him more attractive this way, she gets back together with him. By the end of the episode, he has made a miraculous recovery, and is seen stuffing his face with the implication that he's going to quickly gain all of his weight back. Elaine sits there watching him eat, looking incredibly regretful of her decision.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'', Florence gets wounded and loses a lot of blood. The doctor says that she's going to have no appetite for a while, while her body concentrates on regenerating said blood, and they'll know she's fine when she suddenly becomes ravenous. [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff500/fv00500.htm Cue]] OhCrap from Sam as he realizes that means that in a few days he's going to have an extremely hungry [[FunnyAnimals large predator that can open doors]] loose in his ship, and it'll probably happen when he's asleep.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In one episode, the family decides to do their grocery shopping from Cletus vegetable stand (the Kwik-E-Mart was in the middle of a robbery), which results in everyone except Lisa getting sick with symptoms resembling the flu and unable to keep any food down, even [[BigEater Homer]]. As it turns out, the rest of the Simpsons are so used to processed food that organic vegetables containing actual vitamins and minerals was a massive shock to their system. Lisa, being a vegetarian, was immune, and spends a few days taking care of the others while they recover, which is shown by them happily devouring a bucket of fried chicken.

Inverted in "Fanfic/IntergalacticIllness", while a cold typically reduces a person’s appetite, Lala gets hungrier than usual when she has her cold, she becomes an extreme omnivore.

* ''Manga/TheSummerYouWereThere'' has this as a relatively subtle bit of {{foreshadowing}}. When Shizuku visits Kaori in Chapter 30, a doctor notices that she isn't eating much. After the doctor leaves, Shizuku nonchalantly asks if Kaori isn't hungry, and Kaori says yes. [[spoiler:Within a day, Kaori's condition takes a turn for the worse]].

* ''Fanfic/AGreeenChristmas'': Buttercup isn't hungry when the Professor is cooking for her, the reason is revealed to be a stomach virus.

* In ''Harry's Mad'' by Creator/DickKingSmith, Harry's mother gets worried about the health of one of their parrots, Fweddy, because the latter has suddenly lost his appetite. [[spoiler:Turns out, [[YourTomcatIsPregnant she]] is about to lay an egg]].

* In ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', when Mat is cursed by an ArtifactOfDeath, his appetite disappears until he is NothingButSkinAndBone. After the curse is removed, he has to eat several times the normal amount, both to restore his body and to [[CastFromCalories fuel the magic that is healing him]].

Compare with HyperactiveMetabolism which is a video game dynamic that takes the ideas behind this and extend them to unrealistic levels. Compare to ForgetsToEat, where a lack of appetite indicates obsessive interest in a topic, rather than (or at least not necessarily) ill health, and TooUnhappyToBeHungry where a lack of appetite indicates poor ''mood'' rather than health.

* ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'': After Yahiko recovers from a poisoned dart, Megumi, the medic who healed him, note that his renewed appetite is a sign that he's recovering.

-->'''Getafix:''' Did he eat anything?\\

* In ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', when Mat is cursed, his appetite disappears until he is noticeably malnourished. After the curse is removed, he has to eat several times the normal amount, both to restore his body and to [[CastFromCalories fuel the magic that is healing him]].

* Subverted in ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2''. [[spoiler: When Arthur gets really sick with TB, his health and stamina cores actually empty faster than when he's healthy. This is most likely to imply he gets tired quicker, not that he's hungry, but the cores are replenished when you eat.]]

--> "Sorry, I'm not hungry."

* John Pinette, in his DVD ''I'm Starvin'!'' talks about how he had to shave his eyebrows to play the lead in a Broadway production of ''Hairspray'', and how socially awkward it was (for context, it's important to remember Pinette weighed upwards of 350 pounds):

* In the [[VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies2ItsAboutTime Plants Vs Zombies 2]] fanfic [[Fanfic/GlowingReflections Glowing Reflections]], one of the signs that Enchant-mint is ill is that he doesn't come to breakfast. He even {{Lampshaded|Trope}} this.

--> Sorry, I'm not hungry.

* In the [[VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies2ItsAboutTime Plants Vs Zombies 2]] fanfic [[Fanfic/GlowingReflections]], one of the signs that Enchant-mint is ill is that he doesn't come to breakfast. He even {{Lampshaded|Trope}} this.

* In the [[VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies2ItsAboutTime Plants Vs Zombies 2]] fanfic [[Fanfic/GlowingReflections]], one of the signs that Enchant-mint is ill is that he doesn't come to breakfast. He even {{Lampshaded|Tropes}} this.