Sugar

Sugar

 * "Sugar was transformed during the second part of the eighteenth century from an upper class luxury to a working class necessity."
 * "Sugar is an exciting cheap calorie, lending to the body sudden sources of energy that are as productive as they are unstable... It saves time and fuel in food preparation. It deadens the pangs of hunger. Yet it also drains the body of precious vitamins and minerals, causing 'fatigue, nervousness, depresssion, and apprehension' " Linebaugh 2003 p410

In 1796 Jeremy Bentham suggested that bread should use treacle to save on butter and disguise the taste of cheap adulterated flour. Sugar acted as a hunger suppressant which along with tobacco was both unnourishing and addictive. Coffee and tea for which sugar was a sweetener, were stimulants that deceived workers into thinking they were fitter than they were. We are still shrouded in the illusions of this legacy of colonial violence.

Our still overwhelming struggle against sugar dependence and against the sugar industry is attested in the media saturation of articles on diet and nutrition.

For more rational guidance on eating see:

British Nutrition Foundation

Food Standards Agency