Customer Reviews

The Pleasure Trap: Mastering the Hidden Force that Undermines Health & Happiness

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This slender little volume surprised me. I purchased it after seeing that it was recommended by Dr. Joel Fuhrman (the author of Eat to Live, a perfect companion to this book). Fuhrman's book explains the hard science behind eating a healthful, fresh, green, vegetarian diet. This book is broader in its scope (hence the reason the two books complement one another so well). The authors persuasively explain the evolutionary reasons why our natural desire for dense foods is out of sync with the modern world. In nature we lived in a condition of scarcity; hence, it was to our advantage to seek out calorically-dense foods and eat as much as we could find. For every day of feast there would likely be many days of famine. This otherwise healthy instict is sabatoged by the modern environment of plenty. Now we merely feast -- all the time! This key insight -- that our biology is ill-equipped to deal with the plentifulness of modern life -- can be applied to other areas of life, too. The book is both scientific and historical, and as a whole very compelling. Every person who cares about making rational decisions with regard to eating and living should read it. This book explains what many other books about diet and health leave unsaid. It filled a lot of gaps in my understanding of healthful living.

One observation: some reviewers have indicated that this book advocates moderation. That is false. Indeed, a whole chapter is dedicated to exploring how the myth of "all things in moderation" is dangerous in the modern world. This book is about thinking before acting and about rationally understanding the motives of our actions so that we may make better decisions.

I grew up in the Midwest, land of fast food, animal and dairy products - caught in the 'Pleasure Trap' like so many others. I carried these habits with me when I moved to California and always wondered why I didn't feel quite as energetic as I should in my 30's.

After reading this book, I was convinced that I needed to change my eating habits, or I would surely continue upon a path toward disease. It's not easy giving up the convenience and, quite frankly, the taste of these foods. But it surely must be easier than dealing with the consequences down the road of a life of high-fat foods concentrated with animal proteins.

I highly recommend this book. If it changed the life of this corn-fed Midwesterner, it should change anybody's.

Although the evidence supporting a healthy diet and lifestyle is now becoming well established, many people find it difficult and sometimes impossible to do so. There are reasons for this. Some are a matter on convenience, some involve a perception of financing, some involve cultural and family tradition, but few are more important than the issue of taste preference.

The Pleasure Trap is very cleverly and professionally articulated by 2 experienced and professional authors to show that dietary change is a matter of our being prisoners to our perception of cultural preferences. We make right choices and suffer--so we believe--while we make the wrong choices and believe that it is pleasure.

Such behavior is a trap that is not in our best interests. It's also a matter of becoming addicted to our felt need for instant pleasure while sacrificing long term health and happiness. This is a crucial element of our behavior that many would like to understand and to put to good use. Read this book and you will get a good insight into what otherwise might appear to be a complex network of organic and social factors that, in reality, can really be quite simple.

Reading this book could be your ticket to a better life--all the way around!

I wanted to give this book to everyone on my Christmas list. It's an excellent read for anyone interested in psychology or health. This book sheds light on human nature, why we do what we do, and how our behaviors have evolved. We have created for ourselves a life of ease and excess, which, unfortunately, has lead to our collective demise. Because of the way we are hard wired, it is understandable why we eat the way we do (cooked, refined, processed "foods"), for example, but it is very self destructive and goes against our better judgement. We as a species have set up a huge trap for ourselves and we are suffering as a result. It seems the only way to avoid the misery that is inevitable as a result of the diseases of affluence, is to go against the grain, back to what's natural and logical, back to eating what we were designed to eat: raw plant based foods. It's not a matter of chance. If we keep doing what we have been doing, it's not a matter of IF we will get a disease, it's WHEN. Disease as a result of eating garbage has become so commonplace we accept it as normal, but it hasn't always been that way, and it doesn't have to be that way now. It's not enough just knowing what to eat, and that we should exercise, drink water and get a good night's sleep. The Pleasure Trap explains why it's so hard for us to follow our own common sense, why we keep backsliding into counterproductive habits and how we can reverse the downward spiral of our own making. I learned a lot about myself and human kind, and I now have a better understanding of why I ate two bean and cheese burritos tonight after nearly 70 days of eating mostly raw plant based foods. I decided not to give this book to anyone after all. The sad fact is, few people care about these matters. They just want to loose weight as fast as they can while still eating the same stimulating "food" and wallowing in the same poor habits. We want to keep our cake and eat it as well. It's sad. This book will tell you why, for those of you who really care to understand yourselves and improve long term.
This book is very easy to understand and the concepts are easily applied. I particularly liked the section on how to deal with people who sabotage our efforts to improve ourselves. For example, there are those who may criticize your new, healthy way of eating out of simple ignorance. They don't mean any harm, and have your best interests in mind. They probably just think you are misinformed and want to make sure you aren't being an extremist. Sadly, eating raw plant based foods is considered extreme these days. Never mind it is how humans have been eating since our appearance on this planet thousands of years ago (and have only recently managed to completely mess up when we learned how to plant food and domesticate animals). Then there are the people who know you are doing the right thing for your health but they go out of their way to tempt you or make you feel bad because deep down, they are embarrassed by their own bad habits. They want you to be like them so they don't have to feel uncomfortable or inadequate. The Pleasure Trap offers very useful techniques for handling both of these types of people, you know the ones. They are always making us cookies when we go on a diet. This is a small section, but in my opinion, this portion alone makes the book worth reading. The whole book is excellent. Buy it for yourself for Christmas, or just because you care enough about yourself to make a change.
Healthy New Year!

This book provided me with an excellent understanding of how the Western World fell into the patterns of eating that are causing our modern diseases (obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc.). It also explains how our taste buds can be changed to actually prefer the foods that our bodies are designed to eat to stay healthy(which I tested and found to be true). Armed with this knowledge, I have successfully cured my acid reflux and lost weight while eating foods that I now prefer over the burger and fries norm of the American diet.

This book is largely a good summary of current research and thinking surrounding nutrition and health. Its "pleasure trap" angle goes into more detail about why it can be so difficult to swear off foods we know aren't good for us. It also provides helpful insights and strategies for dealing with that (see also Neal Barnard's "Breaking the Food Seduction.")

All the major medical players in nutrition and health-- T. Colin Campbell, John McDougall, Joel Fuhrman, Neal Barnard, Caldwell Esselstyn, etc.-- are included in the perspective represented here, so if you've read most of those folks, this won't seem revolutionary. But as a basic review of that literature and some solid help on changing habits and patterns, this book is a good read.

Certain suggestions for trying not to hit other people over the head with enthusiasm for healthy eating and living, while well-meanng, actually came off sounding almost manipulative (and irritating) in places. You don't have to be "holier-than-thou" to tell someone that current research is so compelling, disturbing, or enlightening to you that it prompted you to make some changes in your own life. Such a statement might be uncomfortable for some, but it seems more honest than trying to turn yourself into a pretzel to avoid triggering any discomfort or negative reaction whatsoever. That hesitating, oh-so-careful tone about communicating with others was annoying enough to give this book four stars. State your case as honestly as you can and leave it at that. That aside, good info here.

This text is much more than a book on proper nutrition, diets, and eating habits as I originally thought. It takes you step by step with examples of why people live the way we do, including eating, sleeping, the use of drugs, and many other examples are included in the pleasure trap of modern day society.
I think it is well done despite one or two so so reviews.
The Pleasure Trap presents keen insights of our modern day society which are, in my view, critical to understand for anyone that wants to break free of the modern day pleasure trap. Without this understanding, (which I did not have before reading the book), one wonders aimlessly and frequently falls into the many traps that are not good for your overall health. Some people, I suppose, do not want to escape the traps and are content to indulge. But if you want to take ownership of your own health, and not rely on modern medicine to 'save you', read the book.

I loved this book; it explains a lot of the reasons why we overeat and shop and do pleasureable things to excess; it helped me to take a look at what is really going on in our society; and how I can take more control of my own pleaure traps; and break free!

i was expecting a greater range of temptations to be discussed than mostly food choices. i guess i was hoping more of this book would be about psychological drives and how to overcome a wider range of them. the book does go into some detail about our anthropological and biological backgrounds for the food choices we make and how our current environment of rich food choices confounds our natural instincts, leading us to unhealthy conditions from foods that our bodies were never prepared to consume in the quantities that we consume them. anyway, this book does add to the literature of the messages toward greater long-term health via whole foods and the value of occasional, monitored fasting to help the body recover and return to a healthier diet. in this world of many food temptations and fast foods, we need to hear this message.

I wont try and synopsize this book or go into great detail about how and why the messages in this book have changed my life for the better. Suffice to say that it is one of those rare finds that come along a few in a lifetime that simply change your world view entirely and make sense out of things that once seemed too overwhelming, impossibly complicated and confusing. It's an amazing and brilliant book. Period. Read it yourself. What do you have to loose except the things that are stopping you from living the life you deserve?