Sugar Diaries - Part 1
When I think of sugar, my first thought immediately goes back to this Simpsons episode where Homer gets his hands on some sugar and then spends the night out in his backyard protecting this sugar. Just as Marge comes out to confront him, he utters some words in a sleepy haze that equate sugar with power. Here’s what he says in a foreign accent “ In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women."
I loved this scene - the sheer absurdity and randomness (edit - a friend just informed me that this line is in reference to Scarface - which I obviously have not seen yet) of Homer’s dialogue will forever remind me of simpler times. Happy times. A time where my ignorance was served with laughter at best.
What Homer utters in his sleepy haze is not far from the truth. I am not saying that the writers in the Simpsons had a secret message or are conveying the point I am making. I am merely using a random line from the Simpsons to segway into a topic that interests me the most. Sugar.
Sugar has transformed our health, culture, societies, and the economy in addition to creating barons that amassed wealth beyond their imagination. To understand the impact sugar is having on our diets and health, let’s first (briefly) look at its origins by asking a few simple questions:
How did the sugar we consume come to be in such abundant supply?
How much has our consumption of sugar changed over the past 100 years (or throughout history)?
After we’ve read a bit about the history of sugar, we can turn our attention to present-day facts and statistics to fully understand and grasp the impact and effects this favourite household ingredient has on our bodies.
How did the sugar we consume get to be in such abundant supply?
Throughout the middle ages, sugar was once considered a pricy and rare spice. Its origins date back to India, Persia, China where the sugarcane crop was spread for cultivation. The demand and ability to cultivate this crop caught the interest of the wealthy elites who then drove the trans-Atlantic slave trade, resulting in the Portuguese and the Dutch in becoming some of the wealthiest nations in the world. Sugar in the 16th and 17th centuries was comparable to oil in terms of trade and commerce and yet very few understand or even talk about how slavery drove its production. Not exactly the pretty picture you were expecting? Doesn’t quite go with the whole retro-vintage decor you’d imagined with the smiling face of a pin-up model from the 50s as she drinks a beautiful tiny bottle of coke, so elegantly placed by her thighs? I didn’t think so.
So how did we become so obsessed with something we absolutely had no need for in our diets? Obviously it was mass-produced, drove profits, and changed and shaped our economy to the point where we now consider it to be a vital commodity.
How much has our consumption of sugar changed over the past 100 years (or throughout history)? A LOT. If you’re interested in some reading, click here as someone’s already written an article on the topic. The World Health Organization (WHO) and diabetes Canada have made recommendations on how much sugars we should be consuming. These recommendations refer to “free sugars” which are sugars used for additive purposes (simply for the sweetness) or those that have been removed from their original source. They recommend no more than 10% of one’s total caloric intake. For example, if you consume 2000 calories in a day, then you should limit your sugars to no more than 50 grams per day (or 12 teaspoons).
To recap, we’ve now established that sugar is something that we absolutely did not need, yet grew in copious amounts through slavery to amass a substantial amount of wealth (that was so disproportionately distributed) …and now we can’t seem to get enough of sugar as it’s added to almost everything we consume on a daily basis and has become a household favourite ingredient.
What I haven’t touched on yet are the devastating effects of sugar on our health. Effects that are comparable to addiction (as research has suggested) and many diseases thrive on its abundance in our bodies. Sugar has not only changed our economy, but it has also shaped our culture, our bodies, and our minds.
Part 2 of the Sugar Diaries will look at just what comes to mind when we think “sugar”, its effects on our bodies and maybe some family favourite recipes - I’m only kidding. You’ll have to click the recipes section for that.
I will share my personal struggle and journey with sugar and what I am doing to overcome this addiction.