Question 1

How did sugar become so cheap and abundant in modern diets?

Accepted Answer

Sugar transitioned from a luxury reserved for kings to an everyday commodity through Caribbean plantation production powered by enslaved labor, then underwent a second transformation in twentieth-century America with the invention of high-fructose corn syrup from corn. By the 1970s, industrial-scale production and government subsidies made sugar so inexpensive it became an invisible ingredient in processed foods.

Question 2

What role did the sugar industry play in hiding health risks?

Accepted Answer

In 1967, the Sugar Research Foundation paid Harvard scientists to produce a review downplaying sugar's link to heart disease while blaming dietary fat instead. This undisclosed sponsorship shaped public health guidance for decades, leading consumers toward low-fat products loaded with extra sugar instead of addressing the actual dietary harm.

Question 3

How many enslaved people died producing sugar for Europe?

Accepted Answer

Over four centuries of the transatlantic slave trade, roughly twelve million Africans were forced across the Atlantic, with the majority ending their journeys on Caribbean and Brazilian sugar plantations. Life expectancy for enslaved workers on Barbados sugar islands was estimated at only seven years from arrival due to the brutal, lethal conditions.

slavery

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The Crystal That Built Empires and Broke Bodies