The media have become masters at packaging stimuli in ways that our brains find irresistible, just as food engineers have become expert in creating "hyperpalatable foods by manipulating levels of sugar, fat, and salt." Distractibility might be regarded as the mental equivalent of obesity.

The Western world's obesity problem is driven by sugar and saturated fats, which — as my colleague Damian Thompson would tell you — stimulate the brain's reward system just as opioids and other drugs do. The so-called hyperpalatable foods, those loaded with fat, sugar and salt, can cause compulsive behaviour in a way that is very comparable to drug addiction (if you've quit booze for January, you might notice that you're eating more chocolate, to get the sugar fix usually provided by wine).

Because it is a drug, Escher points out: "Chocolate is crack for nice people."

"It has chemical properties that can render it addictive," says Escher. "Combine it with sugar, which is also addictive on both endocrine and neurochemical levels, and then with hyper-palatable fat, and you have a Brain Bomb."

There are no desserts or sweets on our Food Plan for the first year, not because there is anything wrong with desserts or sweets, but because these hyper-palatable foods encourage — even prompt — overeating during the early phases of re-feeding.