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Rating: 
Summary: A Very Bad Book for US Food Industry and HealthCare Industry
Review: Americans have been brainwashed by huge commerical interests when it comes down to national health concerns. This book spells trouble for those industries. I don't think that most Americans will switch their current diet ever, so let's keep investing our 401(K) options on BigMac, and Whoppers. Cheers!
Rating:
Summary: An excellent general advocacy guide to moderation
Review: Co-written by Douglas J. Lisle (formerly a Lecturer of Psychology at Stanford University and currently the Director of Research for TrueNorth Health Center, Rohnert Park, California) and Alan Goldhamer (the Director of TrueNorth Health Center since 1984), The Pleasure Trap: Mastering The Hidden Force That Undermines Health And Happiness is an invigorating and thoroughly "reader friendly" self-help guide to improving one's physical and mental health through positive lifestyle changes; a better understanding how one's physical brain works; and guarding against impulses to overindulge in culinary pleasures or other addictions. An excellent general advocacy guide to moderation, and offering practical instruction in learning to avoid excess of pleasure in order to raise the overall quality of and happiness in one's life, The Pleasure Trap is an enthusiastically recommended addition the personal Self-Improvement, Self-Help reading lists and reference collections.
Rating: 
Summary: So disappointing
Review: This book is centered around a few good insights into human behavior, but the execution - in other words, the actual writing of the book around these concepts - is done so poorly that the whole package loses credibility. I have observed a better level of scholarship from "Prevention" magazine. There are constant one or two line statements which need at least a chapter of discussion and detailed justification - and where I know these one-liners to be incorrect from other readings on evolutionary biology, the credibility of the whole book comes into question. This is a shame, because there are some really good points about satiety and the biochemical basis for "happiness" as opposed to "pleasure". The authors also pad it out with irrelevant material (Edison's youth - interesting enough, but completely off the point) and laborious explantaions of concepts which the reader would surely be familiar with (anyone prepared to read about dopamine and serotonin already understands geometric progression!). They even repeat an entire page, word for word, of material presented earlier. The final straw is the plug for their clinic where you can be saved from your misguided instincts - this apparent ulterior motive calls their whole message into question. Reader, buy a copy of Burnham + Phelan's "Mean Genes" instead. It's better written, better researched and will give you some better coping strategies.
Rating:
Summary: Even Better Than Expected
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Even Better Than Expected
Review: 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.
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