Learn how to escape the
dietary pleasure trap!
By
Douglas Lisle, Ph.D.
When you climb into a hot tub, it pays to edge in slowly.
The water can be so hot as to be unpleasant—until you get used to it. Then it
will feel pleasant. When you step into a swimming pool, the water sometimes
feels cold. But after a few minutes, you get used to it. The scent of pine
trees or fragrant flowers is wonderful—at first. But then you get used to it,
and soon you may hardly even notice it.
How is it that our internal experience can change so
dramatically, even when our environment is staying the same? How is it that we
so easily “get used to” things? It turns out that scientists have carefully
studied this striking phenomenon, which they refer to as neuro-adaptation.
This process is called “neuro-adaptation” because it
involves nerves and adaptation.
Our sensory processes are dependent upon the activation of
sensory nerves. It is through the activation of various sensory nerves that we
are able to see, hear, smell, sense touch, and to taste. The activity of these
various sensory nerves tells our brains what is going on, and to what degree of
intensity. For example, when you are sitting in a dimly lit room, and you turn
on more light, your visual nerves become more active. They help your brain to
notice an increase in brightness. Similarly, if you increase the volume on your
stereo, your auditory nerves become more active. They help your brain to notice
the increase in sound intensity. This same principle works for all of the five
senses.
Relative perception
We tend to think that our nerves provide us with a very
accurate depiction of real-world stimulation, but surprisingly, this is not the
case. Let’s go back to the example of sitting in a dimly lit room. If you turn
on all of the lights, it will seem very bright. However, if you later go
outside into full sunshine, that will seem brighter still. When you go back
inside, it will seem dim—even though all of the lights are still on. Clearly,
your nerves are not providing you with an “accurate” depiction of reality in
these instances. They are providing a relative depiction. Your senses are
highly responsive to change. They tell you when a new stimulus is brighter or
dimmer, louder or softer, hotter or colder, and so forth, but not precisely how
bright, or loud, or hot. Perception is largely a gauge of relative change.
The reason our nerves provide us with relative—rather than
absolute—information is partly because our nerves are designed to adapt to a
steady level of stimulation. When there is a sudden increase in stimulation,
your nerves increase their rate of “firing” (the basic mechanism that
communicates sensory information to the brain). Any change in the intensity of
a stimulus results in a change in the firing rate of the appropriate sensory
nerves. For example, when you brighten the lights, your visual nerves will
increase their firing rate. When you later dim the lights, the firing rate will
be reduced.
Dangerous adaptations
In this article, we shall focus on an aspect of “getting
used to” things that can lead to enormous—often deadly—problems.
After we brighten the lights in a room, our visual nerves
increase their firing rate—but only for a little while! After a few minutes,
the firing rate will slow down, or “adapt,” to the new, higher rate of
stimulation. Sometimes, the nerves may even slow down their response to the
level that they were previously firing at the lower level of illumination. This
is why even a brightly lit room will seem merely “normal” after your sensory
nerves adjust to it.
All of our sensory nerves work in this manner. When we
first enter an office, we might be distracted by a noisy air conditioner. But
after a while we will likely cease to notice it. When a person first starts
smoking cigarettes, he is acutely aware of the smell of the smoke. He smells it
on his fingers, in his clothes, and in his car. But before long, he won’t
notice it at all. He will have “gotten used to it.” He may never notice it
again unless he quits smoking. Only then will his sense of smell re-calibrate
to a more smoke-sensitive state. Then he will be able to smell the smoke—just
like everyone else does.
Taste troubles
Like our other sensory nerves, our taste buds also will “get used to” a
given level of stimulation—and this can have horrific consequences. The taste
buds of the vast majority of people in industrialized societies are currently neuro-adapted to artificially high-fat, high-sugar, and
high-salt animal and processed foods. These foods are ultimately no more
enjoyable than more healthful fare, but few people will ever see that this is
true, because they consistently consume highly stimulating foods, and have
“gotten used to” them. If they were to eat a less stimulating, health-promoting
diet, they soon would enjoy such fare every bit as much. Unfortunately, very
few people will ever realize this critically important fact!
A gruesome tale
If a frog is placed in a pan of water, it often just sits
there. If the pan is heated, ever so slowly, the frog may never notice that the
water temperature is rising. He will “get used to” the increasing heat—and may
be unaware that anything is amiss. Even with no barrier to his escape, he is as
likely as not to sit in the pan—and boil to death. His sensory capabilities may
fail to adequately warn him that action is required for his survival, and he
may only survive if the heat is turned down.
For the past several decades, the modern American diet has
been increasing in animal protein, animal and vegetable fats, refined
carbohydrates, and added oil, salt, and sugar. In just the past two decades,
our caloric intake has slowly escalated by 650 calories per person, per day.
Not surprisingly, obesity and other diseases of dietary excess are at all-time
highs. But just a few decades ago, our nation’s dietary habits were remarkably
different. Meat was an expensive commodity—for some, a “treat.” The same was
true for refined flour products, refined sugar, and oils. But times have
changed. Today, almost everyone in
From the perspective of our natural history, a daily life
with such dietary choices is extraordinary. For hundreds of thousands of years,
our ancient ancestors scratched and scraped, struggling against the harsh
forces of nature in order to get enough food to survive. Even today, in
undeveloped countries, significant food shortages are still a great concern,
with millions dying each year from starvation. Yet, in a mere blink of
history’s eye—in just a few decades—industrialized societies have arisen from
environments of scarcity and have transformed themselves into societies of
unprecedented abundance. The most striking feature of that abundance is a virtually
unlimited supply of food.
Artificial appeal
An abundance of
food, by itself, is not a cause of health problems. But modern technology has
done more than to simply make food perpetually abundant. Food also has been
made artificially tastier. Food is often more stimulating than ever before—as
the particular chemicals in foods that cause pleasure reactions have been
isolated—and artificially concentrated. These chemicals include fats (including
oils), refined carbohydrates (such as refined sugar and flour), and salt. Meats
were once consumed mostly in the form of wild game—typically about 15% fat.
Today’s meat is a much different product. Chemically and hormonally engineered,
it can be as high as 50% fat or more. Ice cream is an extraordinary invention
for intensifying taste pleasure—an artificial concoction of pure fat and
refined sugar. Once an expensive delicacy, it is now a daily ritual for many
people. French fries and potato chips, laden with artificially-concentrated
fats, are currently the most commonly consumed “vegetable” in our society.
These artificial products, and others like them, form the core of the American
diet. Our teenage population, for example, consumes 25% of their calories in
the form of soda pop!
Most of our citizenry can’t imagine how it could be any
other way. To remove (or dramatically reduce) such products from
A pleasure trap
Figure 1 (above left) depicts a devastating dietary trap.
People consuming a whole natural foods diet will experience a normal range of
pleasure from eating low-fat, high-fiber, unprocessed foods—shown as Phase I.
However, if concentrated, adulterated, processed foods are consistently allowed
in the diet, they quickly will become preferred.
In Phase II, we see that these products are typically
experienced as better—that is, more pleasurable—than natural foods. This is the
result of the heightened pleasure-inducing characteristics of
artificially-produced foods. However, within a short period of time (a few
weeks), the taste nerves adapt to this higher level of stimulation, and reduce
their firing rate. This reduces the pleasure experience of
artificially-stimulating foods back down to normal levels (Phase III).
Phase III is the culmination of a process of extraordinary
importance. It is within Phase III that most people live out their lives. And
it is from within Phase III that most people will engineer their own health
crises. Phase III occurs when we have become used to the extreme levels of
stimulation present in artificial foods, yet ultimately experience no more
pleasure than had we remained on a simpler, more healthful diet! Yet, we will
rarely notice this process—just as we rarely notice the process of getting used
to a brightly-lit room.
A challenging escape
Once in awhile, a person may actually become aware of
important dietary knowledge. Despite the tremendous commercially-motivated
misinformation campaigns waged by the dairy, cattle, and processed food
industries, sometimes a person actually comes to understand the truth about
diet. At such times, determined individuals might attempt to change their diet
toward whole natural foods—in spite of dire and unfounded warnings from their
families, friends, and doctors.
But along the way, they are likely to be met with a
formidable obstacle—their own taste neuro-adaptation
to artificially-intense foods. This challenge is depicted as Phases IV and V,
wherein a change to less stimulating foods typically will result in a reduced
pleasure experience. In the early stages, this process is dramatic because
natural foods often are not nearly as stimulating.
Scientific evidence suggests that the re-sensitization of
taste nerves takes between 30 and 90 days of consistent exposure to less
stimulating foods. This means that for several weeks, most people attempting
this change will experience a reduction in eating pleasure. This is why modern
foods present such a devastating trap—as most of our citizens are, in effect,
“addicted” to artificially high levels of food stimulation! The 30-to-90-day
process of taste re-calibration requires more motivation—and more
self-discipline—than most people are ever willing to muster.
Tragically, most people are totally unaware that they are
only a few weeks of discipline away from being able to comfortably maintain
healthful dietary habits—and to keep away from the products that can result in
the destruction of their health. Instead, most people think that if they were
to eat more healthfully, they would be condemned to a life of greatly reduced
gustatory pleasure—thinking that the process of Phase IV will last forever.
This is an extraordinarily deceptive and problematic situation that I describe
as a “pleasure trap.”
A fast way out
For many people, knowing how this trap works is a great
ally to their self-discipline. But for others, this trap can seem just too
difficult to manage. For them, the road may seem too long, and even minor
indulgences often keep them in the trap. Fortunately, there is a second method
for escape—one that greatly speeds up the process of taste re-calibration.
A properly-supervised period of water-only fasting is a
safe and effective way to quickly re-sensitize taste nerves so that whole
natural foods can be fully enjoyed. At the Center for Conservative Therapy, we
have noted that for most people, one week of consuming nothing but water in an
environment of complete rest is enough to substantially re-calibrate their
taste buds. Patients find that after a fast, healthful fare tastes as good as
the artificially-intense foods that they may have been eating previously.
Sometimes natural foods taste even better.
Avoiding the trap
The modern American diet contains concentrations of
chemicals that we were never meant to consume. As food manufacturers have
sought to compete with each other, foods have become increasingly
artificial—loaded with ever-higher concentrations of pleasure-inducing chemicals,
such as sugar, salt, and fat. But curiously, though the concentrations of these
chemicals have escalated, the actual pleasure from eating has always stayed
about the same. We now understand why.
As our modern foods have become increasingly stimulating,
our taste nerves are becoming desensitized—neuro-adapting
to the modern diet’s excessive stimulation. This sets the stage for a
devastating trap, wherein a health-promoting diet is relatively unappealing.
Fortunately, you now understand what it takes to escape
this deceptive dietary trap. With consistent discipline, or perhaps an
occasional period of supervised, water-only fasting, you can always get
yourself back on track. In doing so, you will discover—or perhaps
re-discover—that the diet of our natural design can be very enjoyable.
For more information, see our WEB page at: www.healthpromoting.com