Motivation to Eat Healthy and the Brain

Motivation to Eat Healthy and the Brain

Human behavior is influenced by both intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors (Deckers, 2010). This paper highlights motivational factors that influence eating decisions and the areas of the brain that are instrumental in eating. The paper includes an overview of internal and external sources of motivation and describes how the body physically craves food. Additionally, a brief description of food-related psychological tests is included to explain the motivations for certain types of eating behaviors.

A healthy food plan in conjunction with an exercise program is recommended by most physicians as the best approach to overcome obesity. However, what motivates a person to continue with the program and to eat healthy? Behavior, especially in relation to healthy eating, is based on anticipated outcome (Deckers, 2010). If a personal goal is to lose 20 pounds, the individual's incentive to lose weight may be: to look and feel better; to fit into a special dress, suit or other article of clothing; to gain the approval of a spouse or mate, or, to be chosen for a particular job, team. All these incentives could be motivators for an individual to begin a healthy eating program. What actually motivates the individual varies from person to person.

Value and utility determine the motivational strength of incentives and goals (Deckers, 2010). As the value and usefulness increase, so does the motivation. For instance, an individual who has a reward of a million dollar contract that is dependent on their 20-pound weight loss might be more motivated than a person who is dieting just for the sake of personal gratification. However, research studies have determined that a reward does not always make a person work harder.

When an activity that was once pleasurable becomes a chore, e.g., a person cannot eat tasty foods such as fast food, cookies, cakes, candies, pretzels, and potato chips, etc., the individual is less likely to be motivated to continue a healthy diet. Intrinsic motivation is motivation that does come from an external source (Deckers, 2010). The individual does the activity because of personal satisfaction or pleasure in completing the activity. For instance, in Mark Twain's story about Tom Sawyer, Tom discovers an important lesson in human motivation. Rewards can create behavior alchemy. Rewards can turn an interesting task into drudgery or turn a pleasurable task into work. In Tom's situation, he made painting the fence look like an enjoyable task, so his friends eagerly volunteered to do it. One friend even offered up an apple for the opportunity to participate. The key motivational principle in the Tom Sawyer story is that work consists of whatever a body in obliged to do and play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do (Pink, 2009).

Another example of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is an experiment that psychologists Mark Lepper and David Greene conducted with a preschool class. In their study, they watched a classroom of students for several days and identified the ones that spent their "free" time drawing. They divided the children into three groups; one group was told they would receive reward for their free-time drawing activities (extrinsic motivation). A second group received rewards for drawing even though they were not told that they would receive an award, and the third group received no award. Children in the unexpected award and no award group were steadily drawing two weeks later, while those in the rewards group drew less. The drawing, once considered play had turned into work. The same theory applies to healthy eating. The enjoyment of the task is its own reward. If eating is considered pleasurable, then it has intrinsic reward. If all of the pleasure is taken away, eating becomes a mindless activity required for survival (Pink, 2009).

Psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi also conducted intrinsic motivation experiments during the 1970's. In these experiments, he told the test group of people not to do anything that they considered pleasurable or fun from waking to 9 p.m. In this experiment, the group was told to eat certain foods just for survival, not for pleasure. After first day of the experiment, people noticed sluggish behavior. Some people reported that they had headaches. His conclusion was that individuals will suffer depression if forced to do chores all the time.

The deep limbic system of the brain affects motivation and drive. Over-activity in the limbic areas of the brain is associated with lower motivation and drive. The brain's deep limbic structures, especially the hypothalamus, control the body's sleep and the appetite patterns. Over the past few years, there has been significant research done on food, nutrients and depression. In recent studies published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, individuals with the lowest cholesterol rates have the highest suicide and homicide tendencies. The brain's deep limbic system needs fat in order to operate properly (Amen, 1998).

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