Most American’s now are overweight or obese. Just about everyone that comes through our medical office is actively working to maintain a healthy weight or are interested in losing weight. As a Primary Care Physician I am interested in people living at a healthy weight, however my motivation is usually a little different than my patients. For me, an overweight patient is concerning as they are at a higher risk to have a heart attack, or stroke, or many types of cancer. Many people are surprised to learn that excess weight also puts them at an elevated risk of multiple types of cancers. Thus, excess body weight is not a cosmetic issue to me: it is a major warning signal of risk for the top killers in America. My patients typically don’t spend their time worrying about these maiming and deadly life events. I understand, they aren’t living day in and day out counseling, comforting and treating patients who are dealing with these horrible diseases like I am. My patients just want to look and feel good. They associate food choices with being skinny or fat. I view food choices as matters of life and death. I don’t mean to be melodramatic, but ultimately what we choose to eat will either lead us on the path of disease, disability and premature death, or lead us on a path of vibrant health and many years with a high quality of life. To me, weight loss is a side effect of healthy choices and good health, not the primary goal.
There’s an old joke where a patient asks his doctor if he will live longer or just feel like he’s living longer if he chooses the less appealing healthy lifestyle. A patient once told me that he just doesn’t want to live that long, because he doesn’t want to go through the suffering he witnessed his parents go through with dementia and painful arthritic conditions. What is so hard to communicate to patients is that a healthy lifestyle is preventative of these terrible chronic conditions which cause so much suffering. Poor lifestyle choices don’t typically lead to a sudden peaceful death, rather a protracted period of life dealing with chronic disease. The science is clear: patients who consistently make healthy choices throughout their adult life are much more likely to remain active and free from the debilitation that we see so many elderly suffering through. The chronic disease process is subtle and can’t easily be detected in our day to day lives, so most people miss it. Over the months and years the sum of all the little choices we make day in and day out determine whether we will live out our later years unable to care for ourselves, suffering pain, or living a life with energy and vibrant health able to pursue our passions and purposes. However, today, the choice between steamed broccoli or french fries at dinner seems of trivial importance.
So if everyone wants to feel and look healthy, why is it so difficult for us to sustain a life of consistently healthy choices? Why are our choices and behaviors so often inconsistent with our goals? I believe a big part of the answer is called “The Pleasure Trap.” The Pleasure Trap is a book written by by Doug Lisle, Ph.D. and Alan Goldhamer, D.C. over 15 years ago to clarify the truth about our relationship to our diet and its impact on our health. The book is based on the premise that humans are biologically wired to seek foods that are higher in calories because our survival depends upon it. This is because throughout the millennia humans have survived as a species in an environment where food has been relatively scarce. The chief nutritional threat to humans throughout history has been starvation. In this environment, we would have a survival advantage if we found high calorie foods, and even more so if we could avoid expending excess energy in doing so. Thus the theory goes, we are created with a strong preference for foods that calorically dense and some aversion to physical exertion! Foods that are calorically dense are rich in fat and sugar. These foods give people pleasure, which reinforces our behavior to seek them out and eat them. High calorie foods are even better if they don’t require a great expenditure of energy to obtain them. Thus our love of meat, junk food and aversion to exercise!
Companies that provide us with food are aware of this biology, it drives sales. Many of our favorite foods were designed intentionally to be pleasurable, irresistible in fact. This has been going on for decades. Snicker’s was engineered in the 1950’s. “Betcha can’t eat just one” is the classic slogan for Lay’s Potato Chips that has been used since the early 1960’s. Food companies have employed scientists for decades to find and create irresistible food products to drive sales. It started with combining just the right mix of flavors, but has grown into the creation and use of addictive chemicals and additives. Because of this, our foods have taken on addictive qualities. Many of our foods are engineered purposefully to cause us to eat more than we need by manipulating our biology, the reward systems of our brains. So highly palatable, artificially hyper-palatable foods have proliferated and have dominated the American foodscape for decades now and we see the consequences in our ever expanding waistlines and medical bills.
Thus the availability of hyperpalatable, high fat, high sugar foods in today’s society are unprecedented...as are the prevalence of diabetes, heart disease and cancer. We were not designed to live in an environment where there is never famine or food scarcity, and where we can obtain high calorie foods with little need for physical exertion. In other words, we are biologically ill-equipped to live in an environment with Uber Eats and Pizzas delivered to our doorstep. The modern American diet rich in animal products, highly refined and processed foods, and excessive sugar calls irresistibly to our deep biological survival instincts which are closely tied to our motivation for behavior. These are deeply embedded drives which are difficult to control. These behavioral drives once gave us a survival advantage, but now are working against us. Thus we are poorly adapted to survive in our modern environment of drive through access to hyperpalatable foods, often designed by food manufacturers to be addictive. We are the proverbial fish out of water. This is The Pleasure Trap.
So how do we get out of this trap? First, I must say we don’t have to forgo all pleasure from food. There is a cornucopia of great tasting healthy food options, but the first step to escaping the Pleasure Trap is recognizing the trap for what it is. Once we understand the connections between our biological instincts for survival, our modern obesogenic environment, and our daily choices, we can begin to re-engineer our environment for health. As we start to understand more about how each food choice directly contributes to our health we will begin to make different decisions. We begin to Eat to Live, rather than Living to Eat. As we understand the addictive nature of these foods, we begin to take our food choices more seriously. Ridding our diet of processed and refined foods breaks the cycles of addictive eating. We can avoid filling our homes with calorically dense foods and instead seek out nutritiously dense foods to keep around the house. When we are Hangry is not the time to be thinking about what you’d prefer to eat. If the only available options are healthy, you have set yourself up for success. Repeat this cycle for a few weeks and incredible things begin to happen. Food cravings subside, our bodies begin to feel better and we are instinctively drawn to healthier options.
Once we understand the pleasure trap and the benefits of a whole food plant based dietary pattern, it is easier to engineer a healthy lifestyle. By avoiding high calorie and processed foods for a time, we allow our taste buds to “reboot” and we will develop an appreciation for the rich flavors present in natural whole foods. Some may refer to this process as a “detox”. Once we have broken our food addictions and allowed our taste buds to reacclimate to natural foods we can appreciate our food on an entirely new level. We don’t have to forgo the enjoyment of our food to enjoy good health. There are endless recipes and ways of preparing healthy plant based foods. By learning more about food preparation and spices most people find that the transition to healthy eating leads to MORE enjoyment of their meals rather than less. The benefits of improved energy and vitality that this eating pattern provides, however, is the secret to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Once my patients experience the improved energy, decreased pain and discomfort and mental clarity that comes from a whole food plant based lifestyle they find it easy to continue.
It is my goal to see us all set free from the traps we find ourselves ensnared in our modern society. If you’d like to take the next step in getting out of the Pleasure Trap and reaching your weight or any health goals connect with us at connect@HeadwatersJax.com or visit us at HeadwatersJax.com to learn about all of the resources we offer including powerful intensive therapeutic lifestyle courses that can set you up for success for the upcoming holiday season.
May you live in abundance to fulfill your purpose!
Will Nields, M.D.