Whenever people defend sugar on the basis that it’s natural, we’re always a little amused. Because there is nothing “natural” about the way we’re consuming sugar today.
A quick squiz at a history book tells you the way we eat sugar has changed dramatically in the past millennia, century, even decade. Here’s a brief timeline of how we got from adding a bit to our tea, to downing 10 teaspoons of sugar in a Coca-Cola.
In the Stone Age, sugar was scarce.
We might have munched a few berries, found a beehive or chewed a stalk of sugarcane, but 10,000 years ago, fructose was a rare find.
And because fructose is such a fabulous source of instant fat, it makes sense that we evolved to a) obsessively hunt it down and b) binge on it when we found it. This was great, for back when we needed fat reserves (is it any wonder our livers have evolved to convert excess fructose into fat?).
200 years ago, we still regarded sugar as a luxury.
Until recently, we didn’t have the technology to produce the powdered granular product we know today. Two hundred years ago, sugar was bought in loaves and you were considered quite well-to-do if you could afford one.
In the 19th century, the rich had got the taste for sugar, which drove colonisation and slave trade in tropical nations. And yet even while this (incredibly unethical) business boomed, sugar was consumed modestly. Sugar cubes were invented around this time to cater to the biggest demand – sweetening tea.
Processed food made sugar hit the mainstream.
As women started to pick up more responsibilities outside the home, a lightbulb went off in food marketers’ heads.
Ding! “Why don’t we package up some readymade meals? But we’ll have to add a ton of sugar, refined carbohydrates, preservatives and flavours, because processed foods taste horrible.” Ding ding ding!
You only have to look at food products from the 1950s and 1960s to know how bad they were. Betty Crocker, Jell-O and TV dinners were all in their prime.
In the 1970s, we were taught to fear fat (and love sugar).
The origins of low-fat thinking can be traced to a series of studies conducted by American scientist Ancel Keys in the 1970s, right when heart disease was increasing dramatically in the U.S. Much to Keys’ dismay, the study was snapped up and woefully misrepresented by food companies.
Big Food started marketing just about everything as “low-fat”. But they ran into a problem when they stripped out the fats from foods – they also stripped out any flavour and texture. So, they added buckets of sugar to replace it.
Today? Well, we’re just sugar-mad.
SUGAR, SUGAR, SUGAR. It’s everywhere, from baby food to “healthy” muesli bars to cans of Coke. In Australia alone we’re eating a modest estimate of 14 teaspoons of sugar a day, most of which comes from (surprise!) sugary drinks.
The situation is dire. Consider this: As recently as 100 years ago we ate a little over a kilo of sugar per person each year. Now we eat up to 46kg. Our biology hasn’t changed in 10,000 years, let alone 100, but our diets sure have. And so have our waistlines. And our health.
Are you ready to transform your life and quit sugar for good?
Register for our next 8-Week Program today!
0 comments :
Post a Comment