Most critically of all, there is speed in processed foods once they get into our hands. They unseal quickly, heat up in the microwave quickly, and, most important, excite the brain quickly when they reach the mouth. The smoke from cigarettes takes ten seconds to stir the brain, but a touch of sugar on the tongue will do so in a little more than half a second, or six hundred milliseconds, to be precise. That’s nearly twenty times faster than cigarettes.
