Sugar is the new evil: it is in many processed foods and is considered a danger if eaten in large amounts. But years ago it was expensive and considered a luxury by many of us. What happened? How come there is now so much of it and it is so cheap?
鈥� Sugar was indeed so expensive once that only the very wealthy could afford to become obese from it. Like spice, sugar can make mediocre-tasting food more palatable, so was highly prized. Sugar is also a preservative and so boosts our food supply, in effect.
Sugar cane reached the Mediterranean from India around AD 600, and until the 16th century the sugar trade was monopolised by Arab and Venetian traders. In 1300, sugar cost around 拢350 a kilogram in Britain (at 2010 prices), falling below 拢100 by 1500 as supply grew. This was also when Europeans began seeking direct sea routes to India to avoid these monopolies, which ultimately gave rise to the colonisation of the Caribbean.
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Cane plantations with effectively free (slave) labour and free (expropriated) land sent the price crashing to around 拢10 per kilo (at today鈥檚 prices) by 1800. Sugar beet production in Europe from this time onwards also boosted supply. Eventually the price fell below 拢5 per kilogram in 1900 to around 拢1 today.
We have an instinctive appetite for sugar, and demand did not stop when automation meant we needed fewer calories for work and travel. Sugar鈥檚 ability to improve mediocre food is important to food manufacturers, and the food industry will do all it can to maintain a cheap supply. The costs of obesity are borne by the wider society.
Hillary J. Shaw, London School of Commerce, UK
鈥� Sugar was indeed very costly in medieval times. The English king Henry III and his court must have had a sweet tooth because, in 1288, they spent some 拢60,000 (at today鈥檚 prices) on about 2700 kilograms of sugar. That works out at more than 拢22 per kilogram.
That sugar would have come from around the Mediterranean. However, sugar cane needs heat and quite a lot of water to grow, but rain in the Mediterranean falls mostly in winter, when the cane is least able to benefit from it. It also requires a lot of fertiliser, which wasn鈥檛 well appreciated at the time. So productivity was low and the price high.
鈥淥liver Lyle, of sugar refiner Tate & Lyle, and his brother were the architects of today鈥檚 energy efficiency鈥�
European colonisation of the Americas solved the climate problem. The Caribbean proved good for sugar cane, and in areas where there was abundant water the crop flourished. By the end of the 16th century, the price of sugar had dropped considerably and continued to do so as the plantations grew.
From 1650 to 1800, British sugar consumption multiplied 25 times, reaching 2 kilograms per week per family, much of this for sweetening tea. The government raised more revenue through its sugar tax than from wine or tobacco.
Today, much sugar is extracted from sugar beet, which grows in temperate climates, making it more affordable. Our present high consumption is because sugar has been incorporated into many foods, including some we do not even think of as sweet.
Peter Bursztyn, Barrie, Ontario, Canada
鈥� Sugar is cheap because there are two plants that contain lots of it 鈥� sugar cane () and sugar beet (). Harvesting them and extracting their sugar were made efficient by the technology of the industrial revolution, notably the steam engine and the .
Incidentally, engineer Oliver Lyle, managing director of sugar refiners Tate & Lyle, and his accountant brother Philip were the architects of modern-day energy efficiency. After the first world war, the UK government decided to subsidise home-grown beet to reduce reliance on sugar imports. The general strike of 1926 cut fuel supplies, leading the brothers to marry the first law of thermodynamics and accountancy to produce, in 1936, the first analysis of the energy required to run a factory. This later became known, entirely erroneously, as the 鈥溾��. They were able to nearly halve the energy used by their east London refinery. Sugar is now cheap, therefore, in part because we process it efficiently.
Peter Harris, Watford, Hertfordshire, UK
鈥� The UK is considering a sugar tax on soft drinks, which could spark a major switch to low-calorie sweeteners. But sugar is not the only obesity culprit. Starch, which is found mainly in potatoes and cereals, is rapidly metabolised into simple sugars, so both should be grouped together.
In the meantime, perhaps airlines could put people off sugar if they started to weigh passengers as well as baggage, and charged accordingly.
Nick Roxburgh, Drummoyne, New South Wales, Australia
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This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淪ugar, sugar鈥�