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it. The reason is that in the ancient natural world, the onlylights around were the moon and the stars (against the darknight sky), and flying toward these lights was useful. Themoon and stars are at “optical infinity” — you can neverget there — so they are effectively stationary objects in thesky at any moment in time. This makes them very usefulas points of reference for the internal compasses of moths,who can make great use of the fixed light. By flying towardthe light, a moth can get above the present fray, and takea peek around for food and mates. Then, after an enticingforay is complete, the moth can return to its original po-sition by reversing the angles in its head, and followingthe reverse path home — using celestial objects as a guide.

So now we can see where the mistakes are being made.When moths are flying toward human-manufacturedlights, they do so because artificial lights fool their inter-nal compasses. If the light is safely encased in glass, themoth simply backs away in confusion upon bumping theglass, and then circles around and flies toward the lightagain — and again and again. Its internal compass is great— but it fails this time. It’s never supposed to reach thelight — and by doing so, it’s all messed up. And if the lightis a hot candle or light, the moth might even die. It isn’tsuicide. It’s a contrived accident.

The Right Question If we asked the question “What is it about moths thatmakes them self-destructive?”, we would be asking thewrong question. Our question, as framed above, innocentlyleaps to the conclusion that moths are self-destructive. Ofcourse, it looks like they are. But when we ask the rightquestion, and answer it, the mystery disappears. The rightquestion is: “Why do moths fly toward light?” Once weknow, we can put away all talk about self-destructivetendencies in moths.

Why Good Eating Habits are Such a Challenge This health thing is hard — no doubt about it. In the 25years that we have dedicated to helping others get on track,or back on track, we have witnessed this mighty struggle.Why is it hard? We now see that we better ask the rightquestion before we try to answer it. We think the question“Why do people prefer foods with artificially high caloriedensity to healthier, low-calorie density foods?” Whenframed this way, the question has a sensible answer.

People evolved in environmental circumstances wherecalories were scarce. This we know, as it was true all overthe world just 100 years ago, and it is even still true in manyplaces. Calories have always been in short supply, or atleast very often, in human history. So nature made surethat we came equipped with taste preference machinerybuilt into us — like an internal compass — to make sure

we take advantage of any high-calorie opportunities.Scientific studies conducted over the last decade have

concluded that our brains release greater concentrationsof pleasure chemicals (dopamine and natural opiates) whenthe food we eat is of greater caloric density. This shouldbe no surprise. There must be a reason that we like a ripeapple better than a tart one — and there is. When you eata ripe apple, your calorie detection equipment knows thatthere is a good caloric concentration there — and says“good, keep eating!” A tart apple, maybe 10 percent lesscaloric, is discarded. One apple might be 77 calories, theother merely 70. That seven calorie difference is detectible— and your taste preferences let you know it!

A White-Hot Light A chocolate apple, though, would be about 770 calories —at the same size. That’s because chocolate is about ten timesmore caloric than fruit! Talk about a white-hot light! Thesame tendency is there in all modern processed foods —chips are about eight times as caloric as fruit. Bread andhot dogs are about six times as calorie dense. And likemoths to the light, we are all drawn to this caloric densitylike iron filings to a big magnet. We need to resist. For ourhealth and well being, we must.

Breaking FreeBreaking free from the dietary pleasure trap (or any ad-diction) can be very difficult. For those individuals whofind the challenge overwhelming, a residential approachthat may include an intense program of education and aperiod of supervised water-only fasting has often provento be extremely helpful.

BreakingFree of theDietaryPleasureTrap

H E A LT H S C I E N C E � SPRING 2007 NATIONAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION10 NATIONAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION H E A LT H S C I E N C E � SPRING 2007

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

Alan Goldhamer, D.C., is the founder ofTrueNorth Health Center in California. He isa member of the Board of Directors and a LifeMember of the National Health Association.Dr. Goldhamer is the author of the Health Promoting Cookbook and co-author of The Pleasure Trap.

Douglas J. Lisle, Ph.D., is a licensed psy-chologist. He is the Director of Research atTrueNorth Health Center and is in privatepractice in Rohnert Park, California. Dr. Lisleis the co-author of The Pleasure Trap.

Please visit www.healthpromoting.com for more information orcontact Drs. Goldhamer and Lisle at (707) 586-5555.

If you are holding a copy of Health Sciencemagazine, and know what it is all about, thenyou are one of the lucky ones. Of the 300million people who live in our country, mostwill spend their whole lives confused aboutwhat is good for them, and what isn’t. If youare one of the fortunate few who has a goodfeel for the truth about health, then you aremore than halfway there.

The problem is, knowing is only about half of the battle. The other half of the journey is pretty tough.Just knowing doesn’t quite get it done all by itself. For some reason, even after weknow just what to do, there is a tendency to goahead and do self-destructive things anyway. Ifwe listen to a pop-psychology show, we mighthear all sorts of dark and complex speculationabout why people are often self-destructive.But doubt any of it is right. We think there arereasons for "self-destructive" behavior thatmake perfect sense.

The Strange Behavior of Moths in the Night

Have you ever taken a few moments to stareat moths banging into your porch light?Why do they keep circling and flying into adangerous light? And more chilling still…why do they sometimes fly right into a can-

dle or hot light that zaps them dead? It seems incrediblystupid, so why do they do it?

Maybe moths are mysteriously self-destructive for somedeep, dark, and complex reasons. But we doubt it. Wethink there must be another reason, and one that makesperfect sense.

There is.

Why They Do What They DoMoths, it turns out, are designed to fly towards light. Theyhave built within them a natural compulsion to fly toward