An interesting discussion ensued last week at the coffee shop when Ginnie MacLane sent a note requesting the manager to stop selling her husband so many rich doughnuts. According to the note, her husband didn’t have the willpower to say no to these delicious concoctions and his waistline was beginning to reflect his lack of willpower.

There was an immediate debate, one group claiming that willpower was a matter of determination or resolution – personal self-control. Another group of caffeine debaters subscribed to the theory that it was a matter of brain chemistry over which the doughnut temptee had little or no control.

Nutritionists have long known that the brain’s hypothalamus is the master of impulse, and that this gland depends on sugar (glucose). Sugar (or the lack thereof) controls any action that may fall prey to impulse, such as Republicans taxing the rich or Democrats killing a government program.

Professor Lucius Flatley informed the group that this sugar theory has lately been cast in doubt. Researchers have found that “faith” has great, sometimes dominating, effect. Those who have faith, who believe in their own strengths, seem to exert more willpower. In one study, people were given an easy task that involved only a little self-control and then a second task in which they had to exert more self-control. Those who believed in their own willpower performed well at both task levels. In final-exam week, students who believed that willpower was a matter of personal control reported eating less junk food and procrastinating less than students who did not share that belief. They also earned better grades.

Considering this theory, if Ginny’s husband had faith in his own willpower, doughnuts would not be a problem.

An espresso drinker, Gene Evans contended that some people just happen to have more willpower – that they were born that way. Harold Granger suggested that religion seemed to build willpower for some folks. Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith gives him the willpower to go without coffee, tobacco or a cold beer on a hot day. If Muslim true believers are convinced that 76 virgins await, it may provide them enough willpower to light the fuse on the dynamite strapped to their own abdomen.

Therefore, to be able to resist temptation, one should learn to believe – to have faith. Think of the Republican belief that a no vote to everything suggested by the president will get them re-elected – a belief that provides them the willpower to vote against such tempting choices as payroll tax relief, or help for the poor.

The conclusion drawn by the group: Some people perform well whether they consume sugar or not. Sugar may or may not help – or belief in oneself may or may not do the trick. But in the final analysis, if we want to deny ourselves a tasty doughnut, we need a change in mindset.

The question remains: Do we want to dismiss our weaknesses as beyond our control? Can we permit obese self-indulgent eaters to clutter up medical and tax resources? Shall we keep political leaders of little willpower in office?

Shall Mrs. MacLane slug her husband with a frying pan if he brings home some doughnuts?

Definition of the week

Ultimatum: In politics – the last demand before resulting to concessions.

Rodney Quinn, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel and former university history and government instructor, lives in Westbrook. He can be reached at rquinn@maine.rr.com.