Cedarville Magazine, Summer 2013

14 | Cedarville Magazine It’s 8:45 p.m., and your favorite show is on a commercial break. Immune from“all that marketing,” you get up and walk away from the TV. You’re not tempted by sizzling steak two-for-one deals at this hour, and you wonder who really buys pizza and hot dogs at a gas station. The ads are so loud you can hear them all the way from the kitchen. “Who ever heard of a ‘fourth meal?’” you scoff, as you open the freezer and reach for the ice cream. “They’ll say anything to sell $.99 tacos.” Two scoops of chocolate fudge brownie later, you’re feeling serene as the credits roll. Hey, where’d that dirty dish come from? Dr. Milton Becknell, Professor of Psychology at Cedarville, explains the physiological basis for our cravings and offers advice to overcome them ... so put down that spoon. You’ve heard the adage “You are what you eat.” While this may be hyperbole, we know from 1 Corinthians 6:19–20 that as Christ-followers, our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit. We are “not our own” and have been “bought with a price.” It takes self-awareness, or what Socrates called “knowing ourselves,” to steward our bodies — choosing our behavior patterns and environments wisely. Understanding Our Thoughts It’s a simple fact that eating feels good, and we do love to eat. God designed our brains to emphatically respond when we engage in pleasurable activities such as eating. The brain’s pleasure center is located primarily in the ventral tegmental area (at the top of the brain stem). It projects through the pathways of the neurotransmitter dopamine to the nucleus accumbens. Practically speaking, when you are eating that bowl of ice cream, the nucleus accumbens floods with dopamine, the neurotransmitter associated with good feelings as well as addiction. The dopamine sends a powerful message to the prefrontal cortex that controls our executive functions, including decision-making. In the words of country singer Tim McGraw, the message your brain receives goes something like this: “I like it. I love it. I want some more of it.” What you and I call “craving” is the culmination of a series of chemical activities in our brains. When we continue to pursue the coveted pleasure effect, our prefrontal cortex creatively finds ways to seek out and justify the things we enjoy. Ironically, research has shown that in that bowl of ice cream, it is only about the first three and last three bites that we actually remember as pleasurable. The rest of the ice cream is just a blur and, for all intents and purposes, never happened (of course the scale remembers it differently). If we respond only to the pleasure message, it can lead to a pattern of overconsumption and unhealthy weight gain. Changing Our Behaviors It is safe to assume that most people generally aspire to be healthy, yet the prevalence of obesity in America has tripled since the early 1990s. What is wrong with this picture? The apostle Paul, perhaps, said it best: “For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (Rom. 7:15). Although we know better, we bypass what is healthy and often choose destructive behavior patterns that are contrary to our goals. Lysa TerKeurst, in her best-selling book Made to Crave , said, “Inside a danger zone, the lies and rationalizations of the enemy sing so sweetly.” Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu admonishes us to “know ourselves and to know our enemy” if we want to be victorious. Solomon adds further that “The wisdomof the sensible is to understand his way, but the foolishness of fools is deceit” (Prov. 14:8). Paul, again, gives us the understatement, “I do not understand what I do.” There’s a simple cause-and-effect equation found in Galatians 6:7 — we reap what we sow. This is a rational conclusion, but changing our behavior involves more than just thinking rationally. As a clinical health psychologist, I assess a patient’s readiness to change before launching into a specific treatment or intervention. To use terminology from psychologists James Prochaska and Carlo It’s the Thought That Counts by Milton Becknell