“Explores how industry has manipulated our most deep-seated survival instincts.”—David Perlmutter, MD, Author, #1 New York Times bestseller, Grain Brain and Brain MakerThe 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 … 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.
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The Hacking of the American Mind by Robert H. Lustig, MD, MSL, is the result of a discovery he made while researching and writing his New York Times bestseller Fat Chance, that the pursuit of happiness has been taken over by a culture of addiction and depression as well as pleasure being confused with happiness. He starts by explaining the differences between dopamine and serotonin. Dopamine is the “reward” neurotransmitter that tells our brains we want more and substances and behaviors that release dopamine in the extreme lead to addiction. Serotonin is the “contentment” neurotransmitter that tells our brains that we don’t need any more and when it is in short supply, it leads to depression. Ideally, both neurotransmitters are needed. Dr. Lustig then presents studies, societal roles and government policies in the past 40 years that have promoted the pursuit of pleasure combined with the constant stress that has led to an epidemic of addiction, anxiety, depression, and chronic disease. The American people have been successfully imprisoned in an endless loop of desire, consumption and disease which escape is extremely difficult. As he presents a very hopeless picture, he offers a plan, a call to action that we can take back our health, well-being and the pursuit of happiness on our own terms.
The Hacking of the American Mind was recommended to me by my cousin-in-law. I was intrigued by the premise. Divided into five parts, Lustig breaks down the biochemistry of dopamine (the pleasure neurotransmitter) and serotonin (the contentment neurotransmitter) and how they are produced and function in the brain, and how advertisers and the governments has “hacked” our minds into believing that pleasure is the same as happiness. He also offers a way that people can break free from this “hacking.” He proposes what he calls the Four Cs: Connect, Contribute, Cope, and Cook. There were a lot that I liked about the book. The sections on biochemistry, while scientific, are broken down in a way that it helps the reader understand why these two neurotransmitters are important. It is relatable as how sugar has invaded the food supply and has created a host of health issues. I liked that he admitted that obesity doesn’t always mean an individual is unhealthy. There were a few things I disliked about the book as well. Dr. Lustig is a bit preachy and condescending. At one point, he discusses studies on happiness, he states that 43% of Americans are unhappy, at least “those who admit it.” So anyone who claims to be happy is lying? Some may lie but not everyone. He takes some subtle and unnecessary political jabs that it’s obvious where he lies politically. While presenting the whys to our health issues, he often ignores other causes that happen along with the others. Overall, I recommend The Hacking of the American Mind as it is worth the read.
The Hacking of the American Mind is available in paperback, eBook and audiobook.
too much time on endocrinal explanation..a bit “cutsey” in the delivery
Factual and very persuasive. Science-based.
The book sets out to demonstrate that corporate greed and duplicity have an outsized effect on our daily behaviors. This is not particularly original thinking and nothing remarkable or new is presented in the book. Ultimately it devolves into a near paranoid recitation of grievances. Take the effort to read only if you are in need of a new villain to latch your rancor on.
This is a long treatise on the difference between pleasure and happiness and how our world at large: media, government, retail, etc increasingly supplies the former, implying that the result is the latter. In short, of course, it isn’t.
I was helped in reading this because the author is a physician, and so am I. Thus reading pages and pages of explanations about the brain’s neurotransmitters , synapses, neurons, etc only needed a skim, whereas someone who’s not in the medical profession might find that rather ponderous. I have to admit he does a good job, though, using hilarious similes and witticisms I wish my neuro professors would have used.
All in all I liked the premise and the way it was presented; certainly food for thought : will this gizmo or brand of toothpaste make all my dreams come true? Think about the next generation of electronics: gotta have it, or I can’t survive, right? That’s what we’ve been conditioned to believe. This book will convince you that is pleasure, not happiness.