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A review by wandering_reads
Sugar: The World Corrupted: From Slavery to Obesity by James Walvin
3.0
"Sugar is the new tobacco."
Wow.
When you think about all the work that's been done to limit tobacco use, including pictures of damaged lungs, rotted teeth, birth defects, and what have you, should sugar be treated the same way?
Walvin explores the earliest use of honey and fruit as sweeteners, to the availability of cane sugar in the Western European countries (particularly France and Britain), to the lower prices of sugar contributing to sugar being available to the poorer classes, to the modern day use of artificial sweeteners and corn syrup to oversugar our products.
Are we to blame for the obesity and overweight society we live in today?
Walvin looks at advertising and smokescreening about sugar, especially in the way of research since the 1960s. Some of the work he presents as compelling, that sugar really is a "white devil" of promoting human and environmental degradation throughout history just so we can satisfy our love of sweetness. At what cost? Well, human cost of slavery, as sugar plantations constituted a large part of African slave labour and more modern indentured or migrant labour (often paid in very low wages and represented by poor working conditions). Also, the environmental cost is high, especially where jungles, forests, and natural landscapes have been slashed and burned to make way for the sugar cane crop. The big sugar companies are doing all they can to brush aside the evidence and keep focusing on "personal choice". We can choose, can't we? Or are we at the mercy of the food companies?
King Sugar. Will a tax on sugary food and drink work? In some countries like Mexico, Norway, and Finland, it seems like it has. Chicago instituted this tax last year, but I haven't heard much of how it's worked/not worked. While the history sections seemed rather repetitive at times (I nearly stopped reading halfway through as I felt deja vu from earlier chapters), I powered through to the end and found the final chapters quite illuminating about modern day eating habits and how advertising, supermarkets, and the desire for domestic ease contributed to the rise in sugar-consumption.
I recommend it if you're interested in food history and modern issues.
Wow.
When you think about all the work that's been done to limit tobacco use, including pictures of damaged lungs, rotted teeth, birth defects, and what have you, should sugar be treated the same way?
Walvin explores the earliest use of honey and fruit as sweeteners, to the availability of cane sugar in the Western European countries (particularly France and Britain), to the lower prices of sugar contributing to sugar being available to the poorer classes, to the modern day use of artificial sweeteners and corn syrup to oversugar our products.
Are we to blame for the obesity and overweight society we live in today?
Walvin looks at advertising and smokescreening about sugar, especially in the way of research since the 1960s. Some of the work he presents as compelling, that sugar really is a "white devil" of promoting human and environmental degradation throughout history just so we can satisfy our love of sweetness. At what cost? Well, human cost of slavery, as sugar plantations constituted a large part of African slave labour and more modern indentured or migrant labour (often paid in very low wages and represented by poor working conditions). Also, the environmental cost is high, especially where jungles, forests, and natural landscapes have been slashed and burned to make way for the sugar cane crop. The big sugar companies are doing all they can to brush aside the evidence and keep focusing on "personal choice". We can choose, can't we? Or are we at the mercy of the food companies?
King Sugar. Will a tax on sugary food and drink work? In some countries like Mexico, Norway, and Finland, it seems like it has. Chicago instituted this tax last year, but I haven't heard much of how it's worked/not worked. While the history sections seemed rather repetitive at times (I nearly stopped reading halfway through as I felt deja vu from earlier chapters), I powered through to the end and found the final chapters quite illuminating about modern day eating habits and how advertising, supermarkets, and the desire for domestic ease contributed to the rise in sugar-consumption.
I recommend it if you're interested in food history and modern issues.