Select Noteworthy Excerpts From

THE PLEASURE TRAP

By Doctors Douglas J. Lisle, Ph.D.
and Alan Goldhamer, D.C.

“Happiness is not a final destination.  It is not a place you can find, and then stay forever.  It is the temporary and repeatable consequence of a process—and comprises a diverse set of mood states that signal that we are on the right track.  These experiences include productive satisfaction, pride, romantic moods, the enjoyment of friendships, and feelings of security and of relief.” 

"The foundations of the good life—health and  happiness—are under assault today as never before.  They are under assault from the counterproductive byproducts of human ingenuity, through a deceptive process that we call ‘the Pleasure Trap."

“Too often, today’s physician reaches for powerful pain-reducing drugs—while ignoring the underlying causal nature of the patient’s disease…this creates a dangerous situation, wherein we feel relieved if medication or surgery reduces our pain—yet we may actually be less healthy as a result.  In this way, modern medicine, despite many legitimately miraculous advances, is a Pleasure Trap.”

“Your health is largely in your own hands—and no one else’s.  Health is the natural, spontaneous consequence of healthful living.  It is rarely the consequence of expensive or complicated medical care.”

“The real culprits in most modern-day health problems are excesses, not deficiencies. It is the subtraction of these excesses that will solve most of the problems, not the addition of medications or supplements.  Not surprisingly, the subtraction of excess is nearly always far more effective at restoring health than is the addition of anything—be it dietary supplements or medications.”

“In their frustration, many overweight people come to believe that they must consciously override their hunger drive and eat less than they desire, if they are ever to achieve an optimal weight.  This seems reasonable, since by eating to satiation, they appear unable to normalize their weight.  But, in reality, nothing could be further from the truth.  The secret lies in what we eat, not in how much.”

“We are not doomed by our genes to be overweight.  We come from ancestors who foraged, hunted, and sometimes even scavenged.  Their psychological design was honed by natural selection to balance their many priorities.  One of those priorities was… to get just the right amount of food so that optimal health was maintained.  We are, each and every one of us, descendants of people who successfully solved this problem.”

“To attempt a dietary path of predominately whole natural foods is to risk being viewed as antisocial.  It is also… a significant hassle.  And it is difficult to argue with the ease and efficiency of the fast-food drive-through, the frozen TV dinner, or the phone-order pizza.  Our ancient energy conservation mechanisms are alive and well in the modern mind—greatly influencing many decisions in human affairs.”

“The world of our ancestors no longer exists.  Today, for the first time in over three billion years of life on earth, the well being of a species is no longer dependent upon the success of individuals solving problems of deficiency.  Instead, the issue is how well we can manage our excesses, and in particular, dietary excesses.”