“Clock, the altar of our time. Thought the temple of our mind. And I been sprinkling all the blood of most my life on the altars of my ghost machine.” – Jon Foreman
I stood in the shower and tried to rinse the shame from my body. “I’ll do better today,” I thought. “I’ll be good.”
I was 34 years old and weighed over 300 pounds. I wanted to stop overeating. I wanted to loose weight. I wanted to not feel guilty all the time. Basically, I wanted to fly to the moon without a spaceship.
My appetite was the driving force in my life. It drove me to the store where I purchased the foods I needed to subsist. I write “subsist” rather than “live” because buying and eating food made me feel dead inside.
The Unhealthy Appetite
The first way to recognize an “unhealthy appetite” is to honestly observe and assess the affect it has one ones life. Can the hunger be satisfied or does it mainly cause you to want more? Does it cause a hypo or hyper-glycemic response? Does it make you feel sluggish? Cause heartburn? Make you feel euphoric and then incredibly depressed? Many of us don’t even realize we have these reactions to the foods we eat because we are too distracted. (Or is that just me?) Therefore, we must begin at the beginning.
Your appetite has been manipulated.
In his excellent book, “Salt, Sugar, Fat,” Michael Moss discusses how our taste buds have been analyzed and manipulated by food corporations. In an interview with Julie Menella, a biopschologist who worked at Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, he unearthed some startling information.
“Sugar makes children feel good. It’s an analgesic. It will reduce crying in a newborn baby. A young child can keep their hand in a cold water bath longer if a sweet taste is in their mouth.” – Julie Menella.
Michael Moss writes, “Mennella has become convinced that our bliss point for sugar–and all foods, for that matter–is shaped by our earliest experiences. But as babies grow into youngsters, the opportunity for food companies to influence our taste grows as well. For Mennella, this is troubling. It’s not that food companies are teaching children to like sweetness; rather, they are teaching children what foods should taste like.”
It’s no wonder fresh fruits and vegetables aren’t exactly appealing.
Your appetite is connected to the affections of your heart.
It’s easy to blame others for the sad predicaments we find ourselves in. We don’t get to choose who raises us or the environment we grow up in. While it is true many behaviors are taught, there does come a point in life where we are able to choose. Too often, we follow the affections of our hearts to the detriment of our mind and bodies.
“Look, O Lord, for I am in distress; my stomach churns; my heart is wrung within me, because I have been very rebellious. In the street the sword bereaves; in the house it is like death.” – Lamentations 1:20
Have you ever consumed something you knew would make you sick? Did you eat too many cookies? Drink too much alcohol? Imbibe an illicit substance? We are easily enticed by desire and commit great atrocities against ourselves because of the rebellious nature of our hearts. We like to make jokes about eating or drinking something we know is “bad for us”. Unfortunately, we anesthetize ourselves to truth in the process. That is a real problem.
Our appetites reflect the things our hearts treasure. This is why they are seemingly incurable. But there is good news!
The affections of your heart can be changed by God’s grace.
“The mind is to the soul what the brain is to the body.” Ravi Zacharias
Our generation knows so little about discipline and self-control because we are not willing to learn it. We accept and adhere to our vices as if we had no choice–as if our brains did not control our bodies. I believe the reason for this is that we reject the freedom of treasuring pure and good things. We think of following Jesus as narrow and restrictive when it is actually liberating and beautiful.
We have an appetite for a reason. We are hungry because our hungers are meant to be satisfied. We just need to find the convergence between what we crave and what we really need. Our hungers have been so wholly manipulated and tainted that when we taste “true” things we reject them as unsavory. Jesus can help us with that.
“We were made to know and treasure the glory of God above all things; and when we trade that treasure for images, everything is disordered. The sun of God’s glory was made to shine at the center of the solar system of our soul. And when it does, all the planets of our life are held in their proper orbit. But when the sun is displaced, everything flies apart. The healing of the soul begins by restoring the glory of God to its flaming, all-attracting place at the center.” – John Piper
We must unlearn the behaviors that harm us by clinging to behaviors that heal us; namely, God’s glory and grace. When we acknowledge our need and cling to his gracious love, we find liberation and relief.
Maybe this seems weird and esoteric. Maybe you think joy and satisfaction can only be found in binge-watching Netflix, a giant tub of Ben and Jerry’s or a particularly thrilling ride at the amusement park. I promise you–these things are a mere shadow of the pleasures that can be found in Jesus.
Satisfaction will never be found in a stack of Oreo cookies, French fries or other sugar, salt and fat laden food. We can choose to begin to fill our bodies with foods that nourish rather than poison them but we must inoculate our minds to the cultural narratives that drive us to consume them. The way to break free from the hell of an unhealthy appetite is to find satisfaction in God through His son Jesus. He sets us free from guilt, shame, and addictions, and restores our appetites so they can find true satisfaction in him.
This is a good reminder that lots of substitutes are merely (twisted) shadows of what we really want.