Article On The History Of Sugar

[kiran]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/hea ... e19969475/

"Working women had less time to cook for their families, and the industrial production of sugary foods like jams, ketchup and other bottled sauces and pickles offered quick shortcuts. It’s hard to make the case that nutrition suffered at first, since lifespans increased. "

“Normally in human history, taste told you what was bad for you by being bitter and inedible,” Prof. Levenstein says. “But now with modern nutritional science, there’s almost a glee in exposing the pleasurable things as bad.”

 

[pboy]

that second quote, and it has to do with religion. People are told that what feels good is naughty and wrong, and you must suffer or you aren't a good person. Seriously...the same mental slave program that begins with religion translates into sugar...its that, people who've been raised that suffering is good and anything that your own body finds pleasurable is sinful and naughty...then of course they'll easily buy into 'sugar as this horrible sin'

 

[Daimyo]

The quotes are right, but it's not only about religion.

In past you could use sweetness of certain fruit as a measure to evaluate the quality of the produce. Sweeter fruit or vegetables are better for you than the same variety of produce if it's less sweet as it contains more minerals, vitamins and plant phytonutrients. Why it is sweeter? Because the photosynthesis process was more efficient. Why was it more efficient? Because the plant was better nourished.

But food industry used that feature to make shitty food appealing. First they were using sugar, but now they are using artificial sweeteners to achieve the same effect - fool us into believing certain product is good.

Cows given choice (on pasture for example) are able to choose plants based on smell and taste, as it indicates nutrition value. They avoid certain plants as they don't provide them with good nutrition or don't have enough minerals. But spray them with water and saccharin and they will eat it as there's no tomorrow.