Wonderfully Made

A seminar I attended this week about food addiction, obesity, and diabetes was a great reminder of how wonderfully complex we are.  I think we sometimes forget, or maybe just don’t realize, the many things that go into how we simply function as a human being…we are “fearfully and WONDERFULLY made.” (Psalm 139:14)

Every breath you take (anybody else break into song?), every step you take, every thought you think, and every bite you eat and digest requires a whole lot.  It requires a whole lot of communication between nerves and hormones between your organs and your brain, many transfers, blocks, and signals by and through all sorts of cells, and not to mention your DNA and its coding and expression…all to make you, you.

If you took a few science courses in college you may recall glycolysis and the Krebs cycle, which you will find below.  Although it appears more simple to me now, I do recall thinking “oh my!” when I first saw it and realized I had to KNOW it.  I think this is a great small example of our complexity.  This is just one pathway of reactions and interactions that occurs in your body, a small piece...cool right?

Picture from BioMed Central
http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/figures/1471-2180-9-95-4-l.jpg

 

I’m not trying to be a bore with any scientific stuff, but even your food intake (what and how you eat) is more than just mere preference and will power.  Hunger and satiety are impacted by chemicals in your gut and nerve signals from your gut to your brain. Your drive to eat is impacted by levels of hormones, signal communication, and environmental triggers to your brain, among other things.  This is partly why there is not an exact science to “dieting.” Everyone is uniquely complex and builds a relationship with food different from one another. 

Focusing on building a healthy relationship with food for a lifetime, versus “dieting”, could be just the approach you need to really make a change.  Accepting the bad with the good of your diet habits and finding ways to mold your bad habits into better ones, one step at a time, may sound like the slow way, but it may be the only lasting way.  Quick fixes don’t really exist in the weight loss and food intake world despite the many claims that there are.  There are just too many factors that go into what, why, and how we eat.  Maybe the place you need to start is being okay with the fact that you have stuff to work on.  Then work on transforming your food experience from one that may cause you stress, anxiety and guilt, to one that you enjoy, that is nourishing, and that is just one “easy” part of life.  Eating is a necessity to life, but it can also be a joy of life, and our body in all of its complexity makes this true.

“Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.” – Voltaire.