Historians generally agree the most significant social and technological innovations of the human race include the following:

• the wheel

• the Great Pyramid of Giza

• candy

• cycle lane bollards

Hahaha, I’m just kidding about that last one! It should read “Netflix.” But I’m not kidding about candy. Candy is the single greatest achievement of ­mankind, and that includes visiting the moon, where the ­astronauts planted a flag, collected rocks, and ate space candy.

Whether you prefer chocolate, gummies, hard ­candies, toffee or one of the trillion other sweet ­confections throughout the world, candy triggers a pleasure response in the brain as soon as it touches your tongue, releasing feel-good chemicals like ­dopamine and serotonin which create feelings of ­pleasure and happiness.

This is because all candy comes from sugar, a simple carbohydrate molecule that provides a fast source of energy. Historically this was a valuable resource for survival, and is still perceived by the brain as a reward despite the eventual diabetes and progressive limb loss because we really can’t control ourselves.

A great disappointment of my life is now that I am old and financially solvent enough to buy all the candy I want, I don’t. It is upsetting because maybe the ­millennials are right about never, ever growing up and acting like........

© Times Colonist