The Pleasure Trap

So it's been a while since my last post. The hubby and I do a one-week-on-one-week-off schedule for making dinners, and this was my week off. Likely I won't post much during my off weeks, but the hubby might do some guest posts!

Since I had some time freed up this past week from making dinner, I decided to do a little baking. I love to bake, and it's been really fun trying my hand at veganizing recipes for a variety of baked goods (my favourite way to replace an egg - mix 1 Tbsp ground flaxmeal and 2-3 Tbsp water; let it sit for about 5-10 minutes until thickened). I had some bananas that needed to be used up, and was feeling like oatmeal raisin cookies... so I decided to make some Banana-Maple Oatmeal Cookies from the FatFree Vegan Kitchen. Susan has some great recipes on this site, and the vast majority have no added fat - just the naturally occurring fats in the whole-food ingredients. Here's what the cookies looked like:

They were tasty, had a cakey consistency, and didn't make me feel too bad about eating a couple. But eating cookies made me think a little about something I learned in my Certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition: the Pleasure Trap. Ever wondered why we eat things we know are bad for us? Read on...

The Pleasure Trap is a concept created by psychologist Doug Lisle - check out a lecture from him here on YouTube. He also wrote a book on the subject (with Alan Goldhammer) called The Pleasure Trap: Mastering the Hidden Force that Undermines Health and Happiness - check it out for a much longer and detailed explanation of what I will discuss below.

So, here is my understanding of the Pleasure Trap. We are hardwired to seek pleasure, avoid pain, and conserve energy. When we eat high-caloric foods, we get a zap of pleasure because not only does it taste good, but it was a really easy way to get our caloric needs met (so we conserved energy in doing so and avoided the pain of malnutrition). Dr. Lisle says our bodies can distinguish even small caloric differences - that's why an apple tastes better than a piece of lettuce, for example. Our body knows that apples have more calories than lettuce, and consequently  innately prefers apples to get our caloric needs met easier. Most foods in a standard western diet are high in caloric content, so it's easy to get our caloric needs met (avoiding the pain of malnutrition) with food that tastes good (causes pleasure) without putting forth too much effort (conserving energy).

So, that's one side of it. Let's move on to discussing the Dietary Pleasure Trap. There is an awesome graph here that will give you a visual of this concept. Basically, there are three pleasure zones - the subnormal, normal, and enhanced pleasure zones. When we eat natural whole foods, we are getting our caloric needs met, they taste good, and we're in the normal pleasure zone. This is where we want to be. But, when we eat those high-caloric processed foods that are not good for us, we get a boost into the enhanced pleasure zone. If we keep eating those high-caloric foods, we are kept in the enhanced pleasure zone so long that eventually it becomes normal for our bodies, so we fall back into the normal pleasure zone, always looking for another jolt that will take us back to enhanced pleasure. So we keep eating more and more high-caloric foods, and consequently keep getting fatter and fatter, and sicker and sicker. But, we just can't quite seem to reach that enhanced pleasure zone anymore! So, the cure for that is to change our diets back to whole, natural foods. When we do change our diet, it is initially such a shock to the system that we drop to the subnormal zone. This is why when you start to eat right, your body says, "whoa, something is seriously wrong here! I miss meat! I miss cheese! I miss doughnuts! I miss chips! Give them to me and I'll be happy again!" But, in reality, what you need to do at this point is just stay strong and tough it out. The transitional period will only last for a few weeks - it sucks, but you'll get through it. After those few weeks, your body will re-adjust to the normal pleasure zone and you'll feel better than ever! Natural, whole foods will once again taste amazing, and you should find yourself craving that bad stuff a whole lot less, if at all.

I know learning about this helped me to understand my motivation a lot. I can feel the shift to enhanced pleasure now when I eat something I know isn't all that great for me, like those cookies. But I also now know enough that when I do feel that enhanced pleasure, I back off and let my body come back to normal so that I don't cause myself to desire that enhanced pleasure too much. I feel satisfied after just one cookie, for example, rather than four or five! Navigating the Dietary Pleasure Trap can help you take control of your health and do what is right for your body. Good luck!

Quick Eats

So today was the first day back at school, as well as a boot camp day (I go 2-3 times a week - a wholistically healthy life should always include exercise!), so that left very little time for making dinner. I decided to try out a new recipe using kelp noodles. I've never used kelp noodles before tonight, so I was a little unsure about whether I'd like them. I'm not a big fan of seaweed, so I was worried that the kelp noodles would be too fishy tasting. Suffice it to say, they actually didn't really taste like anything! They had a slightly chewy texture that wasn't off-putting. And they were super easy to prepare. The nice thing about kelp noodles is that they are only 6 calories per serving! And they have a bunch of minerals and good stuff in them. They made a great pre-workout meal because they didn't leave me feeling too full or sluggish. I love pad thai, but don't get to eat it very often, so this was also a great chance to try making it at home. So, here's the recipe!

Pad Thai with Kelp Noodles
Yield: 3 servings

Ingredients:
1 lb (454 g) kelp noodles (Sea Tangle is a great brand)
350 g extra firm tofu
1 zucchini
6 large mushrooms
1 red bell pepper
1/2 lime
2 Tbsp (30 ml) chopped peanuts
2 Tbsp (30 ml) nutritional yeast

Sauce:
1 Tbsp. (15 ml) tamarind paste
1/4 cup (60 ml) water
3 Tbsp. (45 ml) soy sauce
1 tsp (5 ml) Thai red curry paste (or less if you don't like it too spicy)
3 Tbsp. (45 ml) brown sugar

Method:
1. Rinse kelp noodles in running water, then soak in a bowl of water with a splash of lemon juice while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

2. Mix sauce ingredients together in a bowl, using a whisk to mix them to a consistent texture. Taste, and add more tamarind, chili paste, or brown sugar as needed.

3. Drain water from tofu and cut into cubes. Set aside.

4. Chop zucchini and mushrooms into bite-sized pieces. Julienne red pepper.

5. Saute vegetables in a bit of water for about five minutes. Add tofu and continue to heat for another five minutes.

6. Add noodles and sauce and heat for another minute or two until everything is warmed.

7. Serve with lime wedges, chopped peanuts, and nutritional yeast sprinkled on top.

Overall, this was a pretty yummy meal. Spicy, with a bit of sweet, much like traditional pad thai. I think if you wanted it a little more like pad thai you could take down the curry paste and up the brown sugar a bit, but I liked it with this ratio. 

I had a feeling this was a pretty low-calorie meal too, so I thought I'd do a quick nutritional evaluation of it. Using the recipe analyzer at Calorie Count, I discovered this recipe has less than 250 calories per serving! But, it still has a good amount of protein (about 18 g), lots of vitamin C and iron too, plus a plethora of other vitamins and minerals. I'm definitely going to be adding kelp noodles into my rotation of foods - it's a great replacement for pasta!

And now, I better be getting to bed - first day with students tomorrow, and I know I'm going to be needing my sleep tonight!

Adventures in Nutrition

Welcome to my brand new blog! I thought I'd start it out by telling you a little about myself and why I decided to create this blog. First, about me. I'm a Home Economics teacher; I teach high school students about nutrition, food preparation, and issues surrounding food. As such, I considered myself to be relatively knowledgeable about what "good" nutrition is. I was raised on the standard western diet - heavy on meat, dairy, and processed foods. I did go through periods of trying to eat "healthier" by choosing chicken breast over beef, skim milk over 2%, staying away from overly processed foods, etc., but I could never seem to get a handle on my weight. I've tried a bunch of diets, including Weight Watchers and LA Weight Loss. While I lost weight on both, I was never able to keep it off because those "diets" are all about controlling your calorie intake - once you go off them, you just start eating more and end up right back where you started! After giving birth to my son a few years ago, I found that I just couldn't lose weight. I had neither the time nor the energy to do it. I needed something new... I needed a complete lifestyle change that I could commit to for the rest of my life so that once I did lose the weight, I would keep it off for good.

And then one fateful day I decided to watch the documentary "Forks Over Knives." For those who haven't seen this film, it basically provides a very convincing argument for switching to a whole-foods plant-based diet. It's somewhat inspired by the book The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell. I was intrigued by the movie and decided to read The China Study to learn more. And wow, did I learn! I was so convinced by the book and the movie that I decided to suggest going vegan to my husband. Luckily, he agreed to give it a try!

Since I was very interested in learning more about this new diet we were embarking upon, I decided to also take a course that was advertised in the back of The China Study book. It was through eCornell (Cornell University's online continuing education branch),  and was sponsored by the T. Colin Campbell Foundation. So, after three two-week courses, I am now a proud holder of a Certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition. Check out more info on this program here - I highly recommend it!

So, it's now been about four months since we became vegan, and I am absolutely loving it! I have never felt better in my life. Weird aches and pains that I used to have are gone, my weight has started to drop (with the help of a killer boot camp program!), and I have more energy than I used to. I have learned to love plant foods in all of their gorgeous colours and delicious flavours! I decided that I better start telling people about how awesome this holistic lifestyle is... hence, this blog. I believe becoming vegan changed my life, and I believe it can change yours too.

I will try to post regularly with awesome recipes we have made, and I hope you will try making them too! I'll also be adding commentary from what I learned during my certificate courses to help you understand more about why whole-foods plant-based nutrition is the way to true health. Thanks for joining me on this culinary and health adventure...