We all laugh about it, we blame weight gain on it, but it always finds its way to give us an excuse to have that extra plate of dessert. It is a sugar addiction. But where did sugar originate from?
Sugar was first discovered growing as wild grass in the South Pacific around 8,000 BC. Travellers and traders then helped spread sugar across the globe. For centuries it was regarded as a status symbol, working class couldn’t get their hands on it, whereas upper classes were regularly requiring it.
1600 was the year the love affair of the sweet stuff really took a hold. Settlers on the British colony of Barbados discovered sugar cane thrived in the island’s stony soil (where crops of cotton and tobacco had failed). So farming sugar cane soon became a lucrative business and brought in a rush of settlers descending on the land keen to cash in on the newly created wealth. The mass production of sugar was soon in full swing, resulting in Britain’s empire growing bigger and wealthier.
However the physical work was firstly done by Scots and Irish servants but due to the appearance of cheaper West Africa slaves they were quickly replaced. The use of slaves left a nasty scar in British history. The slaves were at the mercy of the plantation owners and overseers who had little regard for their welfare or diet. Pregnant women were even made to work in the fields! Although morally wrong, using cheap slaves made sure that Britain profited well during the sugar boom.
Leading on to the Napoleonic wars in 1800, the British blocked France’s trade routes with the Caribbean, resulting in the French having low supplies of sugar. Napoleon was keen to find a solution; and he soon invested heavily in the production of sugar beet. Opening 40 sugar beet factories operating across the country, their sugar fix was back in full force. But it was not long before Britain got their hands on the sugar beet, and then in 1850 the price dropped and it was an inexpensive crop for all.
With sugar becoming an easy treat for all, it was unsurprising that the sweet pick me up soon became something of the norm. It was a household favourite, from sweet tea in the work place, to becoming a big part of the meals at dinner time and the dessert afterwards. Now in this present day we still see sugar as an obvious treat for everyone, however the problems sugar causes are becoming more and more apparent. Especially with the rise of obesity and type 2 diabetes – 1 in 3 people are affected with either. So what is in sugar that causes these problems?
Diets full of sugar are strongly linked to a whole manner of health problems such as elevated triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol levels and heart disease. As well as the long term consequences such as depression, migraines and poor eyesight. There is also an almost immediate consequence after the intake of sugar. Research has shown that a diet with a high intake of carbohydrates (including sugar) helps to release a feel good chemical, serotonin in the brain. Think back to how you feel after inducing a high level of sugar – very good, yes? This high is normally always temporary, after a few hours or minutes you start to crash – feel tired and lethargic. Scientists have related this high to a similar high people enjoy when taking drugs such as heroin or morphine. The chemicals released in your brain after eating a sugar heavy meal are just the same as when taking drugs. Scary, huh?
Just the other day I went to my first nutritional health talk by Jeraldine Curran, a nutritionist from Beaconsfield. The hour long talk was interesting and inspirational but it left me wondering what can I eat that doesn’t contain sugar? And I felt especially guilty choosing to eat a handful of home-made cookies when I left. Like many I have an extreme sugar tooth and if there is a sweet treat going I will have it. Jeraldine and many others from the talk believed food marketers to be the blame for us wanting to eat sugar. And it is true, sugar is incorporated into many different products without us even realising half the time. There are many common names sugar often hides under including sucrose, fructose, dextrose and high fructose corn syrup – these all essentially mean sugar. It is easily ingested, especially when it hides in everyday foods such as fruit juice, yoghurt, bread, ketchup, salad dressing and canned soups and many more. Even choosing to drink a can of regular fizzy pop means you are consuming nearly 10 teaspoons of sugar which is approximately the maximum recommended daily allowance. (So you can forget about that slice of cake!)
Sugar has come a long way to be as readily available as it is nowadays, but when digesting it what does it actually do? After sugar enters our bloodstream, blood sugar levels rise causing the pancreas to release insulin to convert the sugar in to energy. And that is when we get the temporary high feeling. The bigger the source of sugar the more insulin released. When high levels of insulin are released the blood sugar levels then begin to decrease rapidly resulting in the crash feeling. As well as insulin’s job of converting sugar to energy, insulin also stimulates the storage of fat. Therefore the more sugar you eat the more insulin you produce and consequently the more likely you are to gain weight.
Although sugar is available in every supermarket and restaurant, it shouldn’t have such a big part in the ingredients of ready-made foods. Food marketers are to blame for this. Without thinking of their consequences a lot of them are happy to make money from their consumers. Sugar can be found in cereals to salad dressing to deli meat. We need to learn to control this issue otherwise the cost to our health will become unacceptable.
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