Get
well
May 21, 2019 --
Today I finished reading The Pleasure Trap (2003)
by Doug Lisle and Alan Goldhamer, the "bible" of this place
-- TrueNorth Health Center -- where I am undergoing a
medically-supervised water-only fast with the intention
(which I'm certain will be fully realized) of overcoming
my pre-diabetes and losing 30 lbs.
This book describes the philosophy that underlies what is done here.
More than that, it offers a prescription for what ails
so many Americans and eaters of the "western" diet worldwide.
Here's the idea: Our bodies evolved for food that's
different from what we eat today.
We can process it but not well.
So we are often sick and fat.
The solution is to eat the right food (SOS/vegan).
And the process of healing can be jump-started
by water-only fasting.
The body has remarkable abilities to heal itself
-- far better than any medical care -- if only we let it.
Applying this strategy has achieved astonishing
-- almost unbelievable -- results.
Yet, they are true and well-documented.
So what is the "pleasure trap"?
The book's subtitle is,
"Mastering the Hidden Force that Undermines Health & Happiness."
That force is human motivational mechanisms that drive
us to seek food that, evolutionarily speaking,
was rare and precious: calorie-dense foods.
These foods are now abundant and we
eat them in great quantities.
Our bodies are equipped only for small amounts;
mostly, we are geared for low-calorie-dense
vegetables and fruits, not oils (a modern invention),
meat and fish (infrequent in prehistoric diets),
refined grains (another modern invention),
added salt and sugar (absent in food until recently),
and the like.
Thus, our instincts no longer drive us
to do what's best for us.
The book teaches us about this trap and how to avoid it.
Once we get the message, many chronic diseases --
increasingly endemic in modern life -- will be overcome.
The forces arrayed against this potential revolution
in health recovery are numerous and powerful.
It challenges the dogma in our culture that protein
from meat has the highest quality, essential for
nutrition; and that calcium for strong bones
comes from milk and dairy.
It threatens the makers of the food that makes us sick:
meat and dairy industries, food processors
(most processed foods are too calorie-dense
and laden with fat and salt).
Also threatened is the medical establishment
protecting its hegemony and coming from a mindset
that cures can result only from "doing something"
-- a pill or a procedure.
Fasting, by contrast, is essentially doing nothing;
get out of the way, let some time pass,
and watch what happens.
The results are nearly miraculous and should be standard practice.
Take heed, America! Take heed, world! You have only your health to regain!
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