I agree on the sugar aspect, but having been brought up firmly in the "salt is the devil" camp by my parents, it was an absolute revelation for me that the way

I agree on the sugar aspect, but having been brought up firmly in the "salt is the devil" camp by my parents, it was an absolute revelation for me that the way you get rid of that hollow taste in food is by adding salt. I used to always make dishes that had all the right ingredients to taste good, but just didn't. The thing they were missing was salt.