The Devious History of Sugar

Sugar seems to be everywhere these days. Even in ‘healthy’ food.

So many people are addicted to it. Food companies love it because it is so addictive.

Like the Tobacco companies, those food companies turned to the scientific community to help sell their products.

In 1954, the President of the industry group called the ‘Sugar Research Foundation’ gave a speech about a wonderful business opportunity. If someone could persuade Americans to eat less fat, they would feel hungry more. If they felt more hungry, they would need to replace that fat with something else.

Like..maybe..sugar?

During the 1960’s, that same industry group came up with ‘data’ designed to downplay sugar’s role in heart disease. They paid a bunch of Harvard researchers to publish an article in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine without any funding disclosures.

The article blamed fat for heart disease instead of sugar. It reviewed a lot of literature that said sugar contributed to heart disease and pointed out flaws in them. Wonder why meat and cholesterol have such link to heart disease today? Wonder why you hear so much about a ‘low fat diet?

Articles like these.

The sugar industry also pushed sugar by touting how eating more sugar meant eating less calories. They had ads about sugar having less calories than fruit and other foods.

More ads covered how sugar gives you energy. You and your kids will be able to achieve so much more if they eat sugar.

Snacking became much more commonplace. People addicted to sugar have a hard time going more than a couple of hours without eating. Indeed, the Department of Health and other medical people have talked to me about making sure my residents receive adequate snacks between meals.

Fortunately as we convert people over to eating more fat their cravings go down and we can reduce or eliminate snacks.

These days people know sugar is bad for you. So those food companies have to disguise or downplay the sugar in food. That’s why they’ve come up with something like 65 names for sugar. They can say their product is ‘sugar free’ in 64 different ways.

Chances are if you see your parent or relative eating a lot of something they crave, it has sugar in it.

Meal replacement shakes like Boost or Ensure have some of these sugar names in them. I see Hospice companies come into our homes and hand those shake out like candy. And many residents gobble them up.

It’s so important to read the ingredient labels on products you eat. For a while I hung the list of the 65 names for sugar on my assisted living home’s refrigerators. To help educate our grocery shoppers.

The sugar industry has done a wonderful job of marketing to consumers. And a terrible job of looking out for consumer’s health. It’s time we pushed back on it.