Pleasure Duration Per Calorie: Get the most pleasure for the least pain
The Epicurean Philosophers advocated for reducing pain and increasing pleasure. I had this in mind when choosing between my kid’s Halloween candy. I could have a candy bar(100 Calories) or sucker(60 Calories). I would finish the candy bar before we even got to the next house. I chose the sucker and it gave over an hour of pleasure, and I didn’t even finish it.
This study aims to find optimal solutions. After completing this study, my nighttime snacks have completely changed. They are less calorie and way sweeter than previous.
Objective Data
It is impossible to get objective pleasure data at this time.
To simplify this problem, we start by looking at only 2 objective measurements: Duration of Food Consumption and Calories.
This next data does not consider pleasure intensity, only the “Duration of Pleasure(s) per Calorie”:
The conclusion here is to eat foods as slow as possible, but the foods more generally:
- Suckers
- Vegetables
- Fruit
Adding in Subjective Data
Do you agree with this statement? “A 5/10 pleasure and a 6/10 pleasure are more similar in intensity than a 9/10 pleasure and 10/10 pleasure.”
Because we don’t actually have pleasure measurements and the scale doesn’t seem to match a linear understanding of pleasure, I used an exponential base 10 to multiply by Duration/Calorie for the next comparison. You can also find Linear, Exponential(base 2) and Exponential(base 10) sortable at this link here.
Exponential(10^Pleasure Intensity)*Pleasure Duration/Calories:
My knee jerk conclusion was: “If you are going to treat yourself, treat yourself”, but that was too simple and doesn’t actually solve the original problem.
My thought was to combine the two pieces of data and select items that showed up on both lists.
Data Based Conclusions: Suckers, Coffee, and Tea
From this brief study of favorite foods, Suckers, Coffee, and Tea came out as most Efficient Pleasure Per Pain.
Give these conclusions, what happens next?
Instead of munching on Apples and Oranges at night, have a sucker? I believe it. I eat healthy the rest of the day, if I’m looking for something in the evening, its not typically for nutrition.
I believe its not recommended more than a few cups of coffee a day. However if you have diluted coffee or interesting teas, you could ‘Chain-drink-coffee’ all day. I can attest to this being a constant source of joy. Its probably the caffeine more than the taste, but I find myself excited watching the coffee brew and happy to burn my mouth on it. Pleasure Per Pain, its hard to beat coffee when you have a caffeine addiction.
Eat Your Food Different For Extra Pleasure
“How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?” Licking food is different than swallowing it. It is time we highlight different consumption methods.
Opening an orange into its peals is going to give you extra length over shoving the entire thing in your mouth. I have cut up candy bars into tiny bites to extend it, I justify as it gives more surface area.
Having a stick on Hard Candy/Suckers allows you to rest your taste-buds for later. You can coat/dip Hard Candy/Suckers in citric acid for a different experience.
You can make your own hard candy, this novelty might be interesting on its own, I’ve had fun making ‘craft caramels’. 1 tbsp sugar + 1/4tsp milk is ~60 calories and I can play with this for 30-60 minutes.
Final Thoughts
While I think Coffee/Tea + Suckers are interesting takeaways, I want to emphasize the general idea here: The ability to enjoy a food is independent of its caloric value. You can find more and less optimal foods.
Next time you are going for a snack where nutrition wasn’t the primary concern, ask yourself: Do you want pleasure? Is this the most Efficient Pleasure Per Pain?