Great post and thanks for sharing all the research. I watched a few BBC programmes that dig deeper in to the science of food (sugars and carbohydrates etc) and covered the same topics as you did here. I stopped eating chocolate in the summer and started doing work outs/walking and running and found that the pot belly I developed drastically reduced in size and now my body shape is no longer "skinny-pear" (still skinny though haha).

I do feel better for it as well - now I just have things in moderation (although over Xmas is always tough on the old discipline and always get gifted chocolate haha). But discipline is key, you can change brain patterns, just need to make things a habit so you end up "not missing" sugary and added sugar things.