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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
