Book Review

The Pleasure Trap  by Douglas Lisle & Alan Goldhamer

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Although I think this book is worth reviewing, I can't recommend it for everyone. I'm glad I read the book.  I think it makes some extremely interesting points, but IMHO (in my humble opinion) it's just poorly written.  The text sort of wanders around some very big ideas, but never quite clearly makes its points.  One person I loaned it to said that the only way she could get through it was just to read the summaries at the ends of the chapters.

Let me see if I can synopsize what I believe to be one of the fundamental ideas of the book.  Humans, over time, have become a wildly successful species by following three basic rules; seek pleasure, avoid pain, conserve energy.  This basic strategy has brought humans from a small handful to the over 6 billion who live on the earth today.  The scarcity of food over time has always been a problem for any species.  In any historical environment there are always lean times and times of plenty.   Humans, using the three basic rules; avoid pain, seek pleasure, and conserve energy, have all but dispensed with that problem.  Now, in the midst of food plenty, we must use our rational minds to see that the rules have changed.

Does this mean we have to purposely starve ourselves? No.  But it does mean that we have to go to a little more trouble to eat. Yes.  In a way we'll still be following the rules.  After all, what is less painful than not being sick?  What is more pleasurable than living a healthy life?

This book (in its confused way) is asking us, like Eat To Live, to somewhat radically change the way we eat.  Another one of the good ideas it contains is a way to do this from a psychological point of view.  This is not surprising since one of the co-authors is a psychologist.  Particularly chapter 9, "Getting Along Without Going Along," gives a lot of good ideas about how to deal with the inevitable problems we have with others when we set out to change the way we eat.

So, though I don't recommend the book to everyone, because it's just so darn difficult, I would  recommend it to trainers and nutritionists for the many good ideas it has, if you can glean them out of the muddle.  I would also recommend looking into TrueNorth Health Center.  One of the co-authors, Alan Goldhamer is the director of TrueNorth Health Center in northern California.  You can find more information about the center at www.healthpromoting.com.

P.S.

I actually re-read significant portions of the book recently.  I now have another theory about why it seems muddled.  A lot of what goes on at TrueNorth Health Center is fasting.  One way to look at the book is that its all an argument for the fasting treatments they use at TrueNorth Health Center.  As far as I can tell, it's not until the last chapter or so where they come out and argue for the benefits of fasting. One way to look at the book is that the authors are showing in the first part of the text how rational and level headed they are, so that by the end of the book you'll at least entertain the idea that fasting is rational and level headed. 

Before, I didn't realize why they were going through all the trouble to hold their point and make it at the end of the book.  I didn't realize how taboo the idea of fasting is, until I mentioned the idea to some of my clients and colleagues.  I was amazed at the reaction I got.   More than just distain, the reaction to any suggestion seemed to produce anger.  Pollyana fool that I am, I thought fasting might be an interesting idea to look into, but it appears that most people think its about as good an idea as stealing from the Christmas Fund.  I'm sure the authors of The Pleasure Trap have faced the same reaction, so I now understand their tendency to be a bit timid and muddled about their theories.

I'd like to go on record and say that I'm not for or against fasting. (I certainly don't want the kind of heat it generates.)  I will say that it's at least an interesting idea to look into.  The authors provide some good documentation of a study they've done with 174 people over a 12 year period.  Therefore I recommend the book for some, not for its argument about fasting, but for the good points it makes about the psychology of eating.