"Explores how industry has manipulated our most deep-seated survival instincts."-David
Perlmutter MD Author #1 New York Times bestseller Grain Brain and Brain Maker The New York
Times-bestselling author of Fat Chance reveals the corporate scheme to sell pleasure driving
the international epidemic of addiction depression and chronic disease. While researching
the toxic and addictive properties of sugar for his New York Times bestseller Fat Chance
Robert Lustig made an alarming discovery-our pursuit of happiness is being subverted by a
culture of addiction and depression from which we may never recover. Dopamine is the "reward"
neurotransmitter that tells our brains we want more yet every substance or behavior that
releases dopamine in the extreme leads to addiction. Serotonin is the "contentment"
neurotransmitter that tells our brains we don't need any more yet its deficiency leads to
depression. Ideally both are in optimal supply. Yet dopamine evolved to overwhelm
serotonin-because our ancestors were more likely to survive if they were constantly
motivated-with the result that constant desire can chemically destroy our ability to feel
happiness while sending us down the slippery slope to addiction. In the last forty years
government legislation and subsidies have promoted ever-available temptation (sugar drugs
social media porn) combined with constant stress (work home money Internet) with the end
result of an unprecedented epidemic of addiction anxiety depression and chronic disease. And
with the advent of neuromarketing corporate America has successfully imprisoned us in an
endless loop of desire and consumption from which there is no obvious escape. With his
customary wit and incisiveness Lustig not only reveals the science that drives these states of
mind he points his finger directly at the corporations that helped create this mess and the
government actors who facilitated it and he offers solutions we can all use in the pursuit of
happiness even in the face of overwhelming opposition. Always fearless and provocative Lustig
marshals a call to action with seminal implications for our health our well-being and our
culture.
