Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D. on Motivating People to Eat Healthy and Book 'waistland'

Mental Help Net (www.mentalhelp.net) presents the Wise Counsel Podcast (wisecounsel.mentalhelp.net), hosted by David Van Nuys, Ph.D. "Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D. on her book 'Waistland'", posted October 1, 2007. Through her book 'Waistland' and in this interview, Dr. Deirdre Barrett, a Psychologist specializing in Behavioral Medicine at Harvard Medical School, talks about some of the currently prevalent wrong ideas and myths that make it difficult for people to become motivated to lose weight and make healthy food choices. The worst idea out there is that people should trust their instincts when making food choices. This idea is dangerous becuase our instincts were set up during a time in human history when all foods were obtained through active hunting and gathering of naturally occuring food resources. Dietary fat and sugar was very scarce and we evolved to crave these diet elements so as to motivate us to pursue these elements which are necessary in small proportions for good nutrition. Today, fats and sugars are both commonplace (making them too easy to get) and highly refined (which reduces their nutritional content). We are still attracted to these elements, but now they make us fat and often set us up for lifestyle related diseases.