How Does Khat Affect Your Appetite and Weight

Food is fuel. The body needs regular meals to keep its strength, to think clearly, to fight infection, and to repair itself after a long day. When appetite disappears, the body does not simply wait patiently. It starts to run short, and the shortage shows up in energy, mood, immunity, and weight. Khat, a leafy plant with stimulant chemicals, is one of the substances that can switch appetite off for hours at a time. A person who chews khat may feel no hunger at all during a long afternoon session, even though they have eaten very little that day. That lost hunger is not a small side effect. When it happens every day, it reshapes how a person eats, how much they weigh, and how healthy they feel.

The appetite effect is easy to misunderstand. Some people welcome it, because they think eating less must be a good thing, or because weight loss feels like a benefit. It is not. Weight lost because meals are skipped and the body is running on empty is very different from weight lost through balanced eating and activity. The first kind of loss takes muscle as well as fat, and it leaves the body short of the vitamins and minerals it needs. The person may look thinner, but they feel weaker, tireder, and more likely to fall ill. This article explains, in plain words, how khat changes appetite, why meals get skipped, how weight changes over time, and what poor eating does to the stomach, the mouth, energy, and mood. It is general information only, not individual medical advice. If you are worried about your weight or your eating, a qualified health professional is the right person to talk to.

Why Hunger Goes Quiet

Hunger is a signal. The stomach, the brain and the body’s hormones work together to tell a person when it is time to eat, and that signal is usually reliable. Stimulants interfere with that signal. The chemicals in khat activate the body’s alert system, the same system that takes over in a stressful moment, and when that system is active, digestion and hunger are pushed aside. The body behaves as if food can wait, because something more urgent is happening. During a khat session, that urgent feeling lasts for hours, so the person simply does not feel hungry, even if their last meal was many hours ago.

This is not the same as having a strong will and choosing to skip a meal. The hunger is genuinely absent. The person may look at food and feel no interest in it, or even feel put off by the thought of eating. When the session ends late at night, hunger may return, but by then the person is often too tired to cook a proper meal. They may eat a small snack, or drink something sweet, and then go to sleep. The next morning, the pattern repeats: a light breakfast or none at all, a long afternoon without food, and a late, inadequate meal. Over days and weeks, the body adapts to eating less, and the hunger signal becomes weaker still, because the body has learned that food is not coming at regular times.

It is worth understanding that appetite is not only about the stomach. It is also about habit, mood and routine. A person who eats at regular times, with family, in a calm setting, usually feels hungry at those times. A person whose afternoons are spent chewing khat, whose evenings are spent tired and flat, and whose mornings start late after poor sleep, has lost the routine that makes hunger reliable. Rebuilding that routine is a central part of recovery, and it usually takes time, because the body needs to relearn when to expect food.

Meals Get Skipped Without Noticing

Skipped meals are the most direct result of lost appetite, and they happen so gradually that the person often does not notice how little they are eating. A missed lunch here, a skipped breakfast there, a dinner replaced by tea and a biscuit: each one seems small on its own. Added together over a week, they can mean the person is eating half as much as they need, or less. Family members often notice before the person does. They see the plate left half full, the lunchbox brought home untouched, or the person saying they are not hungry at mealtimes that used to be enjoyed.

The timing of khat sessions makes the problem worse. Sessions often begin in the early afternoon, which is exactly when lunch would normally be eaten, and they run into the evening, when dinner would be served. By the time the session ends, the kitchen may be closed, the family may have finished eating, and the person may be too tired or too low in mood to cook. Eating alone, late at night, is less appealing than eating with family at a normal hour, so the meal is skipped or reduced to something quick and poor in nutrition. The next day, the same timing repeats, and the missed meals become a pattern rather than an exception.

There is also a practical side. A person who spends hours every afternoon in a session has less time to shop for food, to cook, or to sit down for a meal. Food shopping and cooking are work, and they are often the first household tasks to be dropped when time is short. The household may start to rely on cheap, quick food that fills a gap but does not nourish the body properly. Over months, the diet becomes narrower and poorer, even if the person does not think of themselves as someone who eats badly. The problem is not a lack of knowledge about food. It is a lack of time, appetite and routine, all caused by the same daily habit.

Weight Drops, and It Is Not Healthy Loss

When meals are skipped day after day, weight falls. The body, faced with fewer calories than it needs, starts to use its own stores for energy. At first it uses fat, which is what people usually think of when they think of weight loss. But it does not stop there. When food remains short for weeks, the body also breaks down muscle for energy, and it runs low on the protein, vitamins and minerals it needs to maintain strength and to keep the immune system working. The person becomes thinner, but also weaker, and the weight they have lost is not the kind of loss that makes them healthier.

The visible signs of this kind of weight loss are often noticed by others first. Clothes hang looser, the face looks thinner, and the person may look tired even after sleep. They may feel cold more easily, because the body has less insulation and less energy to keep warm. They may feel dizzy when they stand up quickly, or breathless when they climb stairs, because the muscles, including the heart muscle, are working with less fuel. Hair may become thinner and skin may look pale or dry. Wounds and cuts may take longer to heal. None of these signs proves that khat is the only cause, but when they appear alongside daily khat use and skipped meals, the connection deserves to be taken seriously.

It is important to say this clearly, because the idea that thinner is always healthier is a dangerous misunderstanding. A person who loses weight because they are eating properly and moving more is improving their health. A person who loses weight because a stimulant has switched off their hunger and they are missing meals is harming their health, even if the number on the scale goes down. The scale cannot tell the difference between fat loss and muscle loss, or between a nourished body and a starved one. Only the full picture — how much food is eaten, how the person feels, and how their body is coping — tells that story.

The Stomach Pays a Price Too

Khat does not only reduce appetite. It also changes how the stomach and bowels work. Stimulants can slow the movement of food through the gut, which often leads to constipation. Many regular users report going to the toilet less often, and finding it uncomfortable when they do. Bloating, stomach pain, and a feeling of fullness that lasts long after a small meal are also common. Some people develop heartburn, or a burning feeling in the stomach, particularly when they eat late at night after a long session, or when they drink strong tea or smoke during the session.

Over a longer period, the stomach lining can become inflamed, a condition that causes pain, nausea and a loss of interest in food, which makes the appetite problem worse. In heavy users, there is a higher risk of stomach ulcers, which are painful sores in the lining of the stomach that can cause serious problems if they are not treated. Eating very little, and eating at irregular times, makes all of these problems harder to heal, because the stomach is either empty for too long, which allows acid to irritate it, or filled suddenly with a large late meal after hours of emptiness. A regular pattern of small, balanced meals is much kinder to the stomach, but that pattern is exactly what daily khat use disrupts.

The mouth adds to the stomach problem. Chewing khat for hours irritates the cheeks and gums, and many daily users develop sore spots and ulcers inside the mouth. Eating becomes painful, so the person eats less, or chooses only soft, bland food that is easy to swallow but poor in nutrition. A dry mouth, which stimulants cause, makes chewing and swallowing harder too. The result is a circle: the mouth hurts, so less food is eaten; less food is eaten, so the body has less of what it needs to heal the mouth; and the mouth stays sore. Breaking that circle usually requires both stopping the daily irritation and returning to regular, gentle meals.

What Poor Eating Does to Energy

Energy comes from food, and when food is short, energy falls. This sounds obvious, but the way it feels is less obvious, because khat masks tiredness while it is active. During a session, the person feels alert and energetic, even though they have eaten very little. That alertness is borrowed, not real. It comes from stimulation, not from fuel, and when the stimulation wears off, the tiredness returns much worse than before. The person may feel exhausted in the evening, struggle to get up in the morning, and find it hard to stay awake through the afternoon without another session. That exhaustion is then treated with more khat, which hides it again for a few hours, and the circle continues.

Low energy affects everything else. Work becomes harder, because concentration and physical strength both depend on having enough fuel. Study becomes harder, because a hungry, tired brain cannot remember or learn well. Exercise, which would help appetite and mood, feels impossible when the body is running on empty. Even simple household tasks, such as cooking, cleaning or looking after children, take more effort than they should. The person may start to avoid activity altogether, spending more time sitting, which makes the loss of muscle worse and the tiredness deeper. It is a slow decline, and it is easy to blame on age, on stress, or on poor sleep, without recognising that the missing meals are a central cause.

The body also needs specific nutrients, not just calories, to produce energy. Iron, for example, is needed to carry oxygen in the blood, and a diet that is poor in iron can lead to anaemia, which causes tiredness, weakness and pale skin. B vitamins, which are found in a varied diet, are needed to turn food into energy, and a narrow diet can leave the body short of them. A person who eats very little, and eats the same few foods day after day, may be short of several nutrients at once, without knowing it. A health professional can check for these problems with simple tests, and can give advice on food and, where needed, supplements. But the first step is always the same: regular meals, in adequate amounts, at regular times.

How Food Tastes and Feels Changes

Khat can change how food tastes, and that change makes eating less enjoyable. A dry mouth dulls taste, because saliva is needed to carry flavour to the taste buds. When the mouth is dry for hours, food tastes bland and uninteresting. The leaves themselves leave a bitter taste that can linger, and the strong tea or cigarettes that often accompany a session can further dull the sense of taste. A meal that would normally be enjoyed may taste like nothing at all, and the person may push the plate away not because they are full, but because the food simply does not appeal.

The feeling of food in the stomach changes too. A person who has not eaten for many hours may feel a strange emptiness that does not feel like normal hunger, or they may feel full after only a few mouthfuls, because the stomach has become used to being empty and has shrunk its expectations. Bloating after a small meal is common, and it can make the person reluctant to eat more, even when they know they need to. These changes are not permanent, but they take time to reverse. Taste usually returns as the mouth recovers and saliva flows normally again, and the stomach gradually relearns how to handle regular meals. The process is helped by eating small, regular meals rather than trying to eat a large meal all at once after a long period of eating very little.

There is also a psychological side to taste and appetite. Food is often tied to family, to celebration, and to comfort. When a person stops eating with their family, they lose that social pleasure as well as the nutrition. Meals become a chore, or a reminder of a habit they would rather not think about, rather than a pleasure. Rebuilding the habit of eating together, at a table, at a regular time, is not just about calories. It is about restoring a part of daily life that daily khat use has quietly taken away.

Malnutrition Can Develop Quietly

Malnutrition is a word that many people associate with famine or with severe illness, but it can also develop gradually in a person who is eating far too little, day after day, because a stimulant has taken away their appetite. The body becomes short of protein, which it needs to maintain muscle and to fight infection. It becomes short of vitamins and minerals, which it needs for healthy skin, bones, blood and nerves. The signs appear slowly: more frequent colds and infections, cuts that heal slowly, hair that thins, skin that bruises easily, and a general feeling of weakness that does not lift with rest. Because these signs develop gradually, they are easy to dismiss, one by one, until the overall picture is serious.

Children and young people are at particular risk, because their bodies are still growing and need a steady supply of nutrients. A teenager who chews khat daily and skips meals may grow more slowly, may struggle at school because their brain is under-fuelled, and may be more likely to fall ill. Pregnant women who use khat are a particular concern, because poor nutrition and stimulant use can affect both the mother and the developing baby, and health guidance advises against khat use in pregnancy. Older people are also vulnerable, because they have less reserve to draw on, and a period of poor eating can lead to a rapid loss of strength that is hard to regain.

Malnutrition is not diagnosed by looking at a person alone. It is diagnosed by a health professional who can look at weight change over time, at blood tests, and at the overall pattern of eating. Anyone who has lost a noticeable amount of weight, who is eating very little, or who feels weak and ill more often than before should seek advice. The advice is likely to focus on returning to regular, balanced meals, and on treating any stomach or mouth problems that make eating painful. In some cases, a health professional may suggest nutritional support, but the foundation is always food, eaten regularly, in adequate amounts.

Weight, Mood and Self-Image

Weight change affects mood and self-image, and the effect is not always what people expect. A person who has lost weight through daily khat use may receive comments from others, some of them admiring, some of them worried. The admiring comments can be misleading, because they suggest that the weight loss is a good thing, when in fact it is a sign that the body is under-fuelled. The worried comments can feel intrusive or critical, and the person may become defensive about their eating, or may hide how little they eat. Both kinds of comment make it harder to have an honest conversation about what is really happening.

Low mood is a common result of poor eating. The brain needs a steady supply of energy and nutrients to regulate mood, and when that supply is short, mood becomes more fragile. A person who is under-eating may feel flat, anxious, or irritable, and may find it harder to enjoy things that used to give pleasure. That low mood can then make appetite worse, because a person who feels low is less likely to cook, to eat with others, or to care about food. The circle is similar to the one that links khat, sleep and tiredness, and it is just as hard to break without help. Eating regularly, even when appetite is low, is one of the most practical steps a person can take to steady their mood, because the brain cannot regulate mood well on an empty stomach.

Self-image can also suffer in the opposite direction. A person who has lost a great deal of weight may feel self-conscious about how thin they look, may avoid social occasions, or may wear clothes to hide their body. That withdrawal makes the social isolation of daily use worse, and it can deepen low mood. It is worth remembering that the goal is not to reach a particular weight, but to be nourished, strong and able to live a full daily life. A health professional can help a person set a realistic goal for weight and eating, based on their own body and health, rather than on what other people say or on what the scale shows.

What Happens When Eating Returns to Normal

Appetite usually returns when daily khat use stops, although the return is not always comfortable at first. In the first few days, hunger may come back strongly, and the person may feel a strong urge to eat large amounts, or to eat at odd times. That is the body catching up after a long period of shortage, and it usually settles into a more regular pattern within a week or two. Sleep also improves, which helps appetite, because a rested body signals hunger more reliably than an exhausted one. The mouth heals when it is no longer irritated for hours each day, and food begins to taste better as saliva returns and taste buds recover.

Weight usually rises gradually as regular meals return, and that rise is a good sign, provided it comes from nourishing food rather than from sugary drinks and snacks alone. The person may notice that they have more energy, that they feel warmer, that their skin looks healthier, and that they catch fewer infections. Concentration and mood usually improve too, because the brain is finally receiving the fuel it needs. These improvements take weeks rather than days, and they are helped by a simple routine: three regular meals a day, at roughly the same times, eaten sitting down, with family where possible, and with a variety of foods rather than the same few items.

It is honest to say that returning to regular eating can feel strange at first. The stomach may feel full quickly, or may feel uncomfortable after a normal-sized meal, because it has become used to being empty. Eating slowly, in smaller portions more often, can help the stomach adjust. A health professional or a dietitian can give practical advice on rebuilding eating habits, and can check for any nutritional deficiencies that need attention. The key point is that appetite is not lost forever. The body remembers how to be hungry, and when the stimulant that switched hunger off is removed, hunger returns, usually within days, and steadily becomes more reliable over the following weeks.

My Take:

I think the appetite story is the most misunderstood part of khat use, and I want to say why plainly. People hear that khat suppresses appetite, and some of them think that sounds useful, as if eating less must be a good thing. It is not. There is a world of difference between choosing to eat well and eating less because a stimulant has switched off your hunger. The first is a choice made with food on the table. The second is a body running on empty, losing muscle, losing strength, and losing the nutrients it needs to stay well. I find it troubling that weight loss caused by missing meals is sometimes treated as a benefit, when it is really a warning that the body is in trouble.

What stays with me is how quietly this happens. Nobody decides, in a single day, to stop eating properly. It happens one skipped lunch at a time, one dinner replaced by tea, one afternoon when food simply does not appeal. Each missed meal seems small, and the person may not even notice that they are eating half as much as they need. Then, months later, their clothes are loose, they feel tired all the time, and they catch every cold that goes around. The slow, quiet nature of the change is what makes it dangerous, because by the time the person notices, the habit is firmly established and the body has been short of food for a long time.

I also think about the family table, because that is where the loss is most visible. A meal is not just fuel. It is a time when a family sits together, talks, and shares a day. When one person stops coming to the table, or sits there pushing food around a plate, the family notices, even if nobody says anything. Children notice too. They see a parent who does not eat, and they may worry, or they may copy the habit. I think that loss — the loss of shared meals, of food enjoyed together — is a real part of the harm, and it deserves to be counted alongside the weight loss and the tiredness. Health is not only about the body. It is about daily life, and daily life includes eating together.

The stomach and mouth problems worry me in a particular way, because they create a circle that is hard to escape. The mouth hurts, so the person eats less. Eating less means the body has less of what it needs to heal the mouth, so the mouth stays sore. The stomach is upset, so food is unappealing, and the lack of food makes the stomach worse. I think anyone who is caught in that circle deserves help, not blame, because the circle was not created by laziness or by a lack of knowledge about food. It was created by a daily habit that irritates the mouth, upsets the stomach, and switches off hunger, all at the same time. Breaking the circle means addressing the habit and the eating together, not one or the other.

I am struck, too, by how much energy is lost, and how that loss is hidden by the stimulant itself. During a session, a person feels alert, even though they have eaten almost nothing. That alertness is not real energy. It is the body being pushed to ignore its own emptiness, and when the push wears off, the exhaustion is worse than before. I think that false energy is one of the most deceptive parts of khat use, because it convinces the person that they are fine, when in fact they are running on empty. Real energy comes from food and sleep, not from stimulation, and no amount of stimulation can replace a meal.

If I were talking to someone who uses khat daily and has lost weight, I would start with a simple, honest question: when did you last eat a full meal, sitting down, with your family? I would ask them to notice, for one week, what they actually eat, and when, and to write it down. I suspect that many people would be surprised by how little they eat, and by how irregular their meals have become. Seeing it written down is often more powerful than being told, because it is their own evidence, not someone else’s opinion. I would also ask them to notice how they feel after eating a proper meal — whether they feel warmer, calmer, and more able to think — because that feeling is the body telling them what it needs.

For families, my advice is to talk about food, not about blame. Say that you have noticed the missed meals, the weight loss, the tiredness, and that you are worried. Offer to cook together, to eat together at a regular time, and to make meals that are gentle on a sore mouth and stomach. Small, regular meals are easier than large ones, and eating together makes food more appealing than eating alone. I know that a family cannot force an adult to eat, and I know that food alone will not solve a daily khat habit. But regular meals are a practical, kind place to start, and they give the body something to recover with while the person works on the habit itself.

I want to be clear about one thing that I think is often confused: being thin is not the same as being healthy. Health is about strength, energy, the ability to fight infection, to think clearly, and to live a full day without exhaustion. A person who is thin because they are under-eating is not healthy, even if other people admire their weight. I think this point matters, because admiring comments about weight loss can make a person feel that their poor eating is a good thing, and that makes it harder for them to see the problem. If someone has lost weight because they stopped eating properly, the right response is concern, not praise.

For young people, the stakes are higher, and I want to say that directly. A growing body needs food every day, and a growing brain needs fuel to learn. A teenager who skips meals to chew khat is not just losing weight. They are losing the fuel their body and brain need to grow, to study, and to stay well. I know that young people often start in a group, and that refusing can feel difficult. But the price — poor concentration, poor sleep, poor health, and falling behind at school — is a high one, and it is paid every day. I would rather a young person understood that price now than discovered it a year later, when catching up has become much harder.

Finally, I want to end with the part that gives me hope, because it is real and it is worth holding on to. Appetite returns. It does not stay switched off forever. When daily use stops, hunger comes back, usually within days, and it becomes more reliable over the following weeks. Food starts to taste better, the mouth heals, the stomach settles, and energy rises. Weight returns gradually, and with it comes strength and a steadier mood. The first weeks can be uncomfortable, and the stomach may need time to adjust to regular meals again, but the body remembers how to eat, and it wants to. That recovery is not a promise that everything will be easy. It is a reminder that the body is resilient, and that giving it regular food, regular sleep, and a break from daily stimulation is enough to start the repair. If you are worried about your appetite or your weight, talk to a health professional, and if you are supporting someone else, start with a shared meal, at a regular time, without blame. That small, ordinary act is often the beginning of a much larger change.

There is a practical side to rebuilding appetite that I think deserves more attention, because good intentions alone do not put food on a plate. A person who has eaten very little for weeks cannot simply sit down to a large dinner and expect it to feel easy. The stomach has shrunk its expectations, the mouth may be sore, and the habit of eating at regular times has been lost. The sensible approach is to start small and to build up. A light breakfast, even if it is only a little bread and tea, eaten at the same time each morning, is a beginning. A simple lunch, shared with family, is the next step. A modest evening meal, eaten sitting down rather than standing in the kitchen late at night, completes the day. Over a week or two, portions can grow, and variety can return. The goal is not a feast. It is a rhythm, repeated every day, until hunger becomes reliable again.

I also think about the person who cooks, because in many households one person does most of the cooking, and they are often the first to notice that someone has stopped eating. Cooking for a person who pushes food away is disheartening, and it is easy for the cook to give up, or to stop offering proper meals, or to feel that their effort is wasted. I would say to that person: keep offering, keep the meals simple, and do not take the refusal personally. The refusal is not about your cooking. It is about a stimulant that has switched off hunger and a mouth that may be sore. Gentle food, served at a regular time, without pressure or argument, is the most helpful thing you can do. A small plate, offered calmly, is worth far more than a large plate served with a lecture.

The question of what to eat matters too, and I want to be practical rather than vague. A recovering diet does not need to be expensive or complicated. It needs variety: some bread or rice, some lentils or beans or eggs or meat where available, some vegetables, some fruit, and enough water through the day. Milk or yoghurt can help where they are available and tolerated. Foods that are very spicy, very hot, or very hard to chew can be painful for a sore mouth, so soft, mild food is often easier at first. Sugary drinks and sweets may feel appealing, because they are easy to swallow and give a quick lift, but they do not provide the protein and vitamins the body needs, and they can make stomach problems worse. A health professional or a dietitian can give advice that fits local food and local budgets, and that advice is worth seeking, because it turns a general idea about eating well into a plan that works in a real kitchen.

I want to say something about the scale, because many people become fixed on a single number. The scale can be useful, but it can also mislead. Weight changes slowly, and it goes up and down for reasons that have nothing to do with health, such as how much water the body is holding. A person who is rebuilding their eating should not judge their progress by the scale alone. Better signs are energy, sleep, mood, and the ability to work a full day without exhaustion. Are you eating three meals most days? Are you feeling less dizzy when you stand? Are you catching fewer colds? Those questions tell the truth about recovery far better than a single weighing. If weight is being tracked, it should be done by a health professional, at sensible intervals, as part of a wider picture, not as a daily judgement.

There is also the matter of honesty with a health professional, which I raised earlier and which I think is worth repeating in the context of food. Many people are embarrassed to say that they have lost weight because they stopped eating, or that they use khat every day. That embarrassment is understandable, but it gets in the way of help. A doctor who knows about daily khat use and about skipped meals can check for anaemia, can look at the mouth and stomach, and can suggest food and support that fit the situation. A doctor who does not know will be guessing. The conversation may feel awkward for a few minutes, but the help that follows it can last for months. I think that trade is worth making, and I think most people who have had the conversation would say the same.

For parents, I want to add a specific thought about children and meals. Children learn how to eat by watching the adults around them. A child who sees a parent skip meals, eat alone late at night, or push food away will learn that food is not important, or that meals are not a family time. That lesson can stay with them for years. The reverse is also true: a parent who sits down to eat, who enjoys food, and who makes mealtimes a calm, regular part of the day teaches a child that food matters and that family time matters. Rebuilding regular meals is therefore not only about the adult who uses khat. It is about the children who are watching, and who deserve to see eating treated as a normal, healthy, shared part of life.

I will finish with a simple picture that I keep in mind. Imagine a table, set at the same time each evening, with enough food for everyone, and with the family sitting together, talking about the day. That picture is ordinary, and it is also the foundation of health. Daily khat use takes that picture away, a little at a time: first the appetite, then the meal, then the company, then the energy. Getting it back does not happen in a single day, but it does happen, one meal at a time, as appetite returns, as the mouth heals, and as the habit loosens its hold. The table is still there. The food is still there. And the body, given regular meals and a break from daily stimulation, knows exactly what to do with them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Khat affect your appetite?

Yes. Khat is a stimulant, and stimulants suppress appetite by activating the body’s alert system, which pushes hunger aside. During a session, which can last for hours, a person may feel no hunger at all, even if they have eaten very little that day. When this happens every day, meals are skipped regularly, and the hunger signal becomes weaker over time. The effect is not a matter of willpower. It is a direct result of the stimulant chemicals in khat, and it is one of the most consistent effects reported by regular users.

How does Khat affect weight over time?

Over time, khat use usually leads to weight loss, because the person eats far fewer calories than the body needs. Meals are skipped, portions become smaller, and the diet often becomes narrower. The weight lost is not only fat; the body also loses muscle, and it becomes short of vitamins and minerals. The person may feel weaker, tireder, and more likely to fall ill. Weight loss caused by missed meals is a warning sign, not a health benefit, and a noticeable loss of weight alongside daily khat use should be discussed with a health professional.

Does Khat change how food tastes?

Yes, khat can change how food tastes. It dries the mouth, and saliva is needed to carry flavour to the taste buds, so food can taste bland and uninteresting during and after a session. The bitter taste of the leaves can linger, and the strong tea or cigarettes that often accompany a session can dull taste further. A sore mouth from hours of chewing also makes eating less enjoyable. Taste usually returns as the mouth recovers after daily use stops, and food begins to taste better within days or weeks.

Can Khat cause malnutrition?

Yes, khat can contribute to malnutrition when it is used daily and meals are regularly skipped. Malnutrition in this context does not mean a complete lack of food. It means the body is not getting enough protein, vitamins and minerals over weeks and months, because so little food is eaten, and because the food that is eaten is often poor in variety. The signs appear gradually: tiredness, weakness, frequent infections, slow healing, thinning hair and pale skin. Children, pregnant women and older people are at particular risk. Anyone who is eating very little and feeling weak should seek advice from a health professional.

Why does Khat make you skip meals?

Khat makes people skip meals for three reasons that work together. First, it suppresses hunger directly, so food does not appeal during a session. Second, sessions often take place at lunchtime and run into the evening, so the normal times for eating are taken up by chewing. Third, the tiredness and low mood after a session make cooking and eating feel like too much effort, especially late at night. Over time, the routine of regular meals is lost, and skipping meals becomes the normal pattern rather than the exception. Rebuilding a regular meal routine is a key part of recovery.

Does Khat cause weight loss?

Yes, khat often causes weight loss, because it suppresses appetite and leads to skipped meals. The person eats fewer calories than the body needs, day after day, and the body uses its own stores, including muscle, for energy. The weight loss is usually gradual, so it may not be noticed at first, but family members often notice that clothes have become looser and the person looks thinner and more tired. This kind of weight loss is not healthy, because it reflects under-nourishment rather than a balanced diet and activity. If weight loss is noticeable, it is worth discussing with a health professional.

Sources

This article is general information only. It is not individual medical advice. If you are worried about your health, talk to a qualified health professional.