Is Eating Like this Pleasurable? Do I Have to be Completely Vegetarian? Is Eating Like This Pleasurable? Of course it’s pleasurable. I don't think cigarette smokers enjoy life anymore than I do just because they are addicted to nicotine. Just because you are addicted to high calorie foods doesn't mean your life is any more pleasurable my mine. In the beginning when you start eating high calorie food you experience tremendous pleasure. But over time the amount of pleasure is less and less each time. This is how addiction and the pleasure system works. In the beginning, it's the rush that gets you hooked, but later after repeated exposure, the pleasure is much decreased as you get used to it. What is more powerful later in the process is the pain of withdrawal. Unfortunately, now when you eat less calorically dense and more nutritious food, you actually feel a sense of withdrawal which makes you feel worse than you did before you started eating all this junk food. If you allow this withdrawal process to complete by abstaining from rich food, after several weeks eventually you will reach a new baseline. The lower calorie more nutritious food will be more tasty, and the variations between the lowest calorie and the highest calorie foods in your diet will reset. So now you'll have just as much pleasure eating an apple or banana as you once did eating ice cream. This is because now a banana may be the most calorically dense food in your diet. I've found that I enjoy a lot of fruits and vegetables that I once turned up my nose at when I was eating high calorie low nutrient, low weight food. At this point, I wouldn't go back to pizza, chicken, steak or donuts even if you made me. But I Still Don't Want to Eat a Completely Vegetarian Diet Be creative and use the resources below, adding back some animal products. Dr. Fuhrman has recipes for non-vegans. Or consider diets like the Okinawan Diet. The diet eaten by the Okinawan elders in 1949 was a primarily unrefined plant based diet -- about 90-95% of calories from plant foods. They had about 15 grams of fish a day (40 calories or so) , and only rarely had other meats, dairy, and poultry, and usually just on holidays. They also had about 40 calories a day of extracted oils. This is true moderation when it comes to adding animal foods and processed plant foods to the diet. Compared to the vegan diets listed below, this new adaption of the Okinawan Diet is more inclusive of foods that must be portion controlled like animal foods and the use of extracted oils. Its much more liberal on the use of animal products and processed foods than the traditional Okinawan Diet. Of course, the Okinawan diet is easily made completely vegetarian and processed food free. A warning: don't add too much oil or overeat on the animal products. A little goes a long way. Remember 100 grams of chicken (which is about 2/3 of a cup, much less than what most people consider to be a serving) is about 200 calories. If you like this diet, it's important to follow the rules. It's a very good diet and can help you tremendously. Though don't make the mistake and try to moderate -- taking a little from your old diet and little from the new. You'll slide back to your old diet in no time. Why did you choose the foods you're currently eating anyway? You did it because these were the most rewarding high calorie foods you could find. A good book on the diets of the worlds longest lived peoples is Living to 100: The Scientifically Proven Secretes of the World’s Longest-Lived Peoples by John Robbins For those of you wanting to increase the amount plant foods but not wanting to go vegetarian try these books. Try reading a more moderate diet book like The Okinawan Program or Dr. Dean Ornish’s new book The Spectrum where he discusses how to moderate your intake of animal products and refined plant foods For a Discussion on How Your Brain Becomes Addicted to High Calorie Artificial Food How to Escape the Pleasure Trap! By Douglas Lisle, Ph.D. and Alan Goldhamer , D.C. Authors of The Pleasure Trap: Mastering the Hidden Force that Undermines Health and Happiness A Video Lecture on the Addictive Nature of Some Foods Breaking the Food Seduction Video By Dr. Neal Barnard Dr. Barnard’s Book Breaking the Food Seduction: The Hidden Reasons Behind Food Cravings—and Seven Steps to End Them Naturally Return to Moving Toward a Plant-Based Diet Next Topic Choosing Plant-Based Diet-- Exploring the Different Types.

Is Eating Like this Pleasurable? Do I Have to be Completely Vegetarian?

Is Eating Like This Pleasurable?

Of course it’s pleasurable. I don't think cigarette smokers enjoy life anymore than I do just because they are addicted to nicotine. Just because you are addicted to high calorie foods doesn't mean your life is any more pleasurable my mine. In the beginning when you start eating high calorie food you experience tremendous pleasure. But over time the amount of pleasure is less and less each time. This is how addiction and the pleasure system works. In the beginning, it's the rush that gets you hooked, but later after repeated exposure, the pleasure is much decreased as you get used to it. What is more powerful later in the process is the pain of withdrawal. Unfortunately, now when you eat less calorically dense and more nutritious food, you actually feel a sense of withdrawal which makes you feel worse than you did before you started eating all this junk food.

If you allow this withdrawal process to complete by abstaining from rich food, after several weeks eventually you will reach a new baseline. The lower calorie more nutritious food will be more tasty, and the variations between the lowest calorie and the highest calorie foods in your diet will reset. So now you'll have just as much pleasure eating an apple or banana as you once did eating ice cream. This is because now a banana may be the most calorically dense food in your diet.

I've found that I enjoy a lot of fruits and vegetables that I once turned up my nose at when I was eating high calorie low nutrient, low weight food. At this point, I wouldn't go back to pizza, chicken, steak or donuts even if you made me.

But I Still Don't Want to Eat a Completely Vegetarian Diet

Be creative and use the resources below, adding back some animal products. Dr. Fuhrman has recipes for non-vegans. Or consider diets like the Okinawan Diet.

The diet eaten by the Okinawan elders in 1949 was a primarily unrefined plant based diet -- about 90-95% of calories from plant foods. They had about 15 grams of fish a day (40 calories or so) , and only rarely had other meats, dairy, and poultry, and usually just on holidays. They also had about 40 calories a day of extracted oils. This is true moderation when it comes to adding animal foods and processed plant foods to the diet.

Compared to the vegan diets listed below, this new adaption of the Okinawan Diet is more inclusive of foods that must be portion controlled like animal foods and the use of extracted oils. Its much more liberal on the use of animal products and processed foods than the traditional Okinawan Diet. Of course, the Okinawan diet is easily made completely vegetarian and processed food free.

A warning: don't add too much oil or overeat on the animal products. A little goes a long way. Remember 100 grams of chicken (which is about 2/3 of a cup, much less than what most people consider to be a serving) is about 200 calories. If you like this diet, it's important to follow the rules. It's a very good diet and can help you tremendously. Though don't make the mistake and try to moderate -- taking a little from your old diet and little from the new. You'll slide back to your old diet in no time. Why did you choose the foods you're currently eating anyway? You did it because these were the most rewarding high calorie foods you could find.

A good book on the diets of the worlds longest lived peoples is Living to 100: The Scientifically Proven Secretes of the World’s Longest-Lived Peoples by John Robbins

For those of you wanting to increase the amount plant foods but not wanting to go vegetarian try these books. Try reading a more moderate diet book like The Okinawan Program or Dr. Dean Ornish’s new book The Spectrum where he discusses how to moderate your intake of animal products and refined plant foods

For a Discussion on How Your Brain Becomes Addicted to High Calorie Artificial Food

How to Escape the Pleasure Trap!

By Douglas Lisle, Ph.D. and Alan Goldhamer , D.C.

Authors of The Pleasure Trap: Mastering the Hidden Force that Undermines Health and Happiness

A Video Lecture on the Addictive Nature of Some Foods

Breaking the Food Seduction Video By Dr. Neal Barnard

Dr. Barnard’s Book Breaking the Food Seduction: The Hidden Reasons Behind Food Cravings—and Seven Steps to End Them Naturally

Return to Moving Toward a Plant-Based Diet

Next Topic Choosing Plant-Based Diet-- Exploring the Different Types.