The Hacking of the American Mind

Wish Lustig would focus a little less on negativity towards fat people as the absolute pinnacle of unhealthiness, although he does make the effort to bring up there are healthy fat people and unhealthy skinny people. Putting that aside, though, he wrote the most accessible explanation of dopamine, seratonin, and how they work with and against each other I've ever seen. I think this book is full of very useful and important information, once you get past the focus on weight. As someone with a history of disordered eating, the focus on weight was very uncomfortable for me, but Lustig's work to dispel the concept of ‘a calorie is a calorie', calories-in-calories-out mindset of weight loss, which is significantly less toxic than most diet advocates. Diet is in fact only a quarter of the answer to healthier minds and bodies in Lustig's opinion. I've recommended this book to several friends who frequently admit to seeking out easy hits of dopamine (via food, microtransactions in video games, whatever) without actually understanding what that means for their brains in the long-term - I'm guilty of it as much as anyone.