Like it or not, 90% of the body's serotonin is produced by gut microbes... Dopamine, GABA and other lovely chemicals are also contributed by the endless sea of creatures within.
Yup - which may have been where my problems started, as I inadvertently radically modified my intestinal flora with a brutal and strict diet - for a long time put it down to having fundamentally screwed up my digestion, but towards the point when I decided to think of it differently, I had been wondering if I'd screwed up neurotransmitter levels via microbiota genocide, and was trapped in a vicious cycle - hence the decision to go "no, you don't feel nauseous, you're hungry".
Something similar happened to me when I was fighting some (likely chronic) yeast and staph infections last year. I got pretty strict with my diet and was underweight by about 10 pounds. Even though I was eating very healthy, I wasn't letting myself eat stuff I was hungry for. Eventually I decided I couldn't restrict myself anymore, and started eating regular again. I bounced back pretty well after that.
Sounds like you decided to reinterpret a bodily cue that you'd been interpreting as nausea to mean hunger. That's awesome. Reminds me of hearing that many people misinterpret thirst for hunger, and are dehydrated because of that. Also reminds me of my grandpa, who never took pain medication, even at the dentist. He said that it didn't hurt, it just felt intensely warm.
I do similar with pain - break it into its component parts, and you can experience it as a warm tickling, or pressure, if you've really managed to do a number - although some things one can't map, like having finger nails torn off - although maybe that's because it's an uncommon pain one doesn't usually get a chance to examine.
