Sugar

Our brains are hard-wired to love sweet things. Sugar, pure unadulterated sweetness, is highly addictive. The more sugar you eat, the deeper the neural pathways etch themselves into your brain, as with any substance that is habit-forming, such as fat and salt. I was shocked when an Italian ice-cream machine manufacturer told me that he was asked by a large multinational fast-food chain how much salt they could add to a slush drink in order to make it particularly addictive, and the consumer very thirsty. There are some dark forces at work, and although it’s great to know exactly what is added to our food, the best way to avoid these evils is to make it ourselves using fresh ingredients.