Two of the country's most innovative experts construct a landmark paradigm for health in America.

THE PLEASURE TRAP
Authored by Doctors Doug Lisle
and Alan Goldhamer reveals the hidden force that undermines health and happiness.
Now available in paperback

Every once in a while, a landmark book on health comes along that’s so original and innovative, it makes you reconsider your fundamental beliefs about the subject.  After reading it, you find yourself questioning behaviors that all of your life you had taken for granted were good for you, until now. THE PLEASURE TRAP: Mastering The Hidden Force That Undermines Health and Happiness  by Douglas Lisle, Ph.D., and Alan Goldhamer, D.C., is such a book.

A wake-up call to even the most health conscious Americans, it boldly challenges conventional wisdom about sickness and unhappiness in today’s contemporary culture and offers groundbreaking solutions for achieving change.  Authors Douglas Lisle, Ph.D.,  and Alan Goldhamer, D.C., two of the nation's most courageous and outspoken experts, provide a fascinating new perspective on how modern life can turn so many smart, savvy people into the unwitting saboteurs of their own well-being.

Inspired by original research, comprehensive clinical studies, and their successes with thousands of patients, the authors construct a new paradigm for the psychology of health, offering fresh hope for anyone stuck in a self-destructive rut.  Integrating principles of evolutionary biology with trailblazing, pro-active strategies for wellness, they argue that people who are chronically overweight, miserable, or junk food junkies aren’t that way because they’re lazy, undisciplined, or stuck with bad genes.  They reveal that they are victims of a primal dilemma that harkens back to our prehistoric past called The Pleasure Trap.

Dr. Douglas Lisle, who has spent the last two decades researching and studying this evolutionary syndrome, explains that all of us inherit innate incentives from our ancient ancestors that he terms The Motivational Triad: the pursuit of pleasure; the avoidance of pain; and the conservation of energy. Unfortunately, in present day America’s convenience-centric, excess-oriented culture where fast food, recreational drugs, and sedentary shopping have become the norm, these basic instincts that once successfully insured the survival and reproduction of man many millennia ago, no longer serve us well.  In fact, it’s our unknowing enslavement to this internal, biological force embedded in the collective memory of our species that is undermining our health and happiness today.

The authors point out that all of us, because of The Motivational Triad, are wired for self-sabotage until we get a firm handle on how these primitive drives specifically betray us in our daily lives, and then learn how to transcend their grip.  For example, instead of eating whole natural foods that admittedly require more effort to buy and prepare, most of us, explain Doctors Lisle and Goldhamer “conserve our energy” by “pursuing the pleasures” of the easily accessible “insta-fare” that promises loads of sugar, fat, and refined carbohydrates. Contrary to popular belief, over-eating has nothing to do with a lack of will power or low self-esteem, insist the authors.  The typical American diet, so replete with processed foods, actually fools the senses, leaving people vulnerable to over-consumption.

Doctors Lisle and Goldhamer also examine many other unhealthy habits such as drug and alcohol abuse, sex addiction, and gambling, explaining that these too are the result of being caught in The Pleasure Trap, and that when people stop blaming themselves and others for their frustrating circumstances, and instead focus on reclaiming their power, that’s when their lives will change.

In THE PLEASURE TRAP, Doctors Douglas Lisle and Alan Goldhamer provide detailed advice on how to recognize the patterns of this trap in your own life and overcome its negative influence.  They explain:

  • The unexpected twist in the relationship between happiness and pleasure and why so many lives are ruined because of it;
     
  • Why we’re poorly equipped psychologically to understand that it's the excesses in our diets, not the deficiencies that are killing us, and how to overcome this mental blind spot;
     
  • Why taking supplements and vitamins can be counterproductive to good health;
     
  • How the secret to maintaining optimum weight doesn’t lie in how much you eat, but in what you eat;
     
  • The sumptuous, health-promoting diet that nature intended and modern society has forgotten, and how to bring its life-enriching benefits into your own home;
     
  •  How to maintain your strength and integrity in the face of social pressure opposing healthy living;
  • Why animal products are such tempting Pleasure Trap foods, and how to overcome those over-whelming cravings.

In addition, the authors address with candor and acumen some of the most frequently debated issues in health.  Some of those topics include:

  •  How our awe of modern medicine’s legitimate advances can lure us into a false sense of security about our health and make us lose sight of the fact that our personal health is predominantly determined by our own dietary and lifestyle choices;
     
  •  How modern medicine can be a Pleasure Trap because it lessens our pain but fails to help the body heal itself, leaving us less healthy as a result;
     
  •  The benefits of medically supervised water-only fasting, featuring results of the author’s original research which shows the largest effects published to date in the treatment of high blood pressure;
     
  •  Current environmental concerns and how eating a health-promoting, whole natural foods diet is one of the best gifts we can give our planet.

THE PLEASURE TRAP also features The Point System, a comprehensive personal quiz developed by the authors that gives readers a barometer for measuring their own diet and lifestyle choices.  “THE PLEASURE TRAP focuses on telling people what they actually need to know instead of what they want to hear,” states Dr. Lisle.  “Our objective is to create an awareness of the real price of modern living that no one ever talks about and empower readers with the tools they need to redirect their health, and in turn, rediscover the happiness and well-being that is their birthright.”  
 

Orders for The Pleasure Trap may be placed online at The TrueNorth Health Store.