Ghrelin | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Ghrelin | Previous Challenge Entry
By Ellen Dodson
07/11/24
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As a kid, my taste buds craved sour foods, especially mustard sandwiches and giant dill pickles. In my twenties and thirties, I was a carbonation addict. I poured myself a diet soda on the rocks first thing each morning. When I finally kicked my diet soda addiction in my forties, I acquired an insatiable taste for coffee and splurged on a fancy coffee maker. Most of us Americans are spoiled by chemically engineered feasts that delight our palates while corroding our health. I’ve learned, though, that it’s possible to retrain our taste buds. Those who’ve given up sugar for several months, for example, usually find themselves wanting to spit out their next taste of it because it’s way too rich.

Anyhow, this is the pep talk I’m giving my fiftyish year old self as my bulging behind and pokey metabolism attempt to climb back on the healthy lifestyle wagon. I’m confident that I can retrain my taste buds to enjoy mixed greens almost as much as waffle fries, but my greatest nemesis and saboteur is ghrelin, the appetite chemical our bodies produce to entice us to eat. It seems more than coincidental that ghrelin sounds like gremlin. My ghrelin gremlin is so confused. She thinks she resides inside of a burly lumberjack rather than a grandmother who is the height of a nine year old. She possesses strong opinions about appropriate portion sizes. When I try to eat healthily and in moderation, she growls at me in public and sucker punches my stomach lining, reminding me that there’s still some room. When she’s happy, I’m happy. Drive-thrus make us very happy.

But, as we all know, such happiness is short lived and destructive. The Lord encourages me to care for my body as His temple and to exert self-control. Though it’s fun to deflect, Ghrelin isn’t really a hangry demon, but a clever part of my “fearfully and wonderfully made” body. As my creator, God understands my mind and body much better than I or any nutritionist ever can. Many healthy eating plans exist, but I cannot sustain any of them without His help. Left on my own, I’m like Esau, trading blessings for stew. But, when I center myself in Christ, even bland meals and hunger pangs become blessings. My Lord teaches me that food tastes better and stays with me longer when I receive it with a grateful mindset, remembering to pray thanksgiving for the nourishment it brings. When I deal with hunger pangs for an hour, I consider how he handled them for forty days and nights in the desert. Experts tell us that unhealed traumas and loneliness perpetuate eating disorders. Christ, the source of love that heals, thought not of His own discomfort but of us during the fasting period, throughout His three year ministry, and when he bore the hellish punishment meant for us upon Himself. The groaning of an empty stomach points to an infinitely greater hunger cry in the hearts of lost and confused people. Ghrelin, when I’m thinking about it clearly, is a reminder, yes, to eat, but also to love others in prayer so that they may know that there’s a place for them at His heavenly table.

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