While researching the toxic and addictive properties of sugar for his New York Times bestseller Fat Chance, Dr. Robert Lustig, a neuroendocrinologist at UCSF, made an alarming discovery - our pursuit of happiness is being subverted by a culture of addiction, depression, and chronic disease from which we may never recover.
In his new book, The Hacking of the American Mind: The Science Behind the Corporate Takeover of Our Bodies and Brains, Dr. Lustig presents the fundamental differences between pleasure and happiness – at the biological and chemical level—and explains the way big business is taking advantage of advances in neuroscience to confuse and conflate pleasure with happiness, and getting into our heads.
Dr. Robert Lustig is professor of pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology and a member of the Institute for Health Policy Studies at University of California, San Francisco.