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By Matthew Rees

Food and Health Fact #55: Can processed foods be addictive?

The following is adapted from my review in today’s Wall Street Journal of Michael Moss’s new book, “Hooked: Food, Free Will, and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions.” 

“It takes 10 seconds for the brain to feel the effects of cigarettes, but sugar’s effects are felt 20 times faster—and salt and fat don’t take much longer than that. The disparity stems from nicotine needing to enter the bloodstream to reach the brain, while sugar and salt take a shortcut through the taste buds. But the tongue is outmatched by the nose when it comes to driving our eating decisions. While there are 10,000 taste buds, there are 10 million olfactory receptors, and they can detect hundreds of scents.”