We're one of the first labs to give people food while in a brain scanner. We applied imaging to the reward regions of the brain and were able to say that sugar is able to grab reward circuitry and drive compulsive intake more than fat.

It's absolutely like drugs of abuse. I would have never bet money on this. I still remember discussions with my mother. "If you feel bad … eat chocolate."

"Oh, Mom," I'd say. But as often is true, mothers are right.

About 60 to 70 percent of the population in this country is overweight or obese. We lose 300,000 people a year to it. It's mind-boggling compared with the other things we worry about, like terrorism.

If I were the