How sugar changed the world

Until a few centuries ago, sugar was a luxury for a few, especially in Europe where it was not possible to grow the canes with which to produce this substance. In the Mediterranean basin, the sweet flavor was guaranteed only by honey and the little sugar available, imported from the East together with the finest spices, was prescribed by doctors to treat fevers and bronchial diseases. But even in Asia, where white sugar began to be produced with very refined techniques about 1500 years ago, its consumption was reserved for the most luxurious banquets of the Chinese and Indian elites.

Then things changed, almost suddenly. Starting from the sixteenth century, Europeans went further and further with their ships and discovered that the lands of Latin America and the Caribbean had the ideal characteristics for cultivating sugar canes on a large scale, in immense plantations. The earnings of the owners of these expanses of cane became enormous, also because labor was practically free. In fact, millions of African slaves were deported to the plantations to work in inhumane conditions.

Europe began to be flooded with sugar, starting a revolution in food tastes that is still with us. A "sweet" revolution, but with a strong bitter aftertaste because producing sugar still today means exploitation of workers in producing countries, environmental devastation to extend cultivation, not to mention the damage to health linked to the abuse of this substance in modern nutrition.

That of sugar is therefore a story that is not at all obvious, a story of ingenuity and power that hides a dark side of exploitation, racism and environmental destruction as Ulbe Bosma tells us in his essay "The world of sugar" (Einaudi, 2024, euro 34, pp. 536. Also Ebook). The Dutch historian, in fact, does not limit himself to reminding us how this sweetening substance has progressively spread on our tables. Use the growth of sugar in our lives and our diet to better observe and understand our history and the world we live in. Bosma's book thus tells a long story that involved millions of people engaged in backbreaking work on plantations and sugar factories. It narrates the workers' resistance to the inhumane conditions imposed by large sugar producers and the choice of many small farmers to continue producing this sweet substance in a traditional way, without excessive impact on the environment.

Bosma does not forget, however, that the history of sugar is also an exciting story, which has led human beings to perfect the art of manufacturing this substance, placing the creativity of craftsmanship, the intuitions of ancient producers and the miracles of chemistry at the service of ambitious industrial and commercial projects, even if too often unscrupulous. Sugar is at the center of enormous economic and commercial interests, interests controlled by a few large multinationals and by veritable dynasties of large producers, powerful entities capable of influencing the choices of governments and international bodies. The result is that what should be a luxury to be indulged sparingly is in abundance, with serious consequences for human health given that sugar is among the main causes of obesity-related diseases.

Bosma does not criminalize this substance, which remains an essential element for our well-being. Sugar is the fuel of our cells because it is the main nutrient they use for their metabolism. Today, however, there is too much sugar in the foods we consume without even realizing its presence as happens with bread, pasta, vegetables, fruit, milk, in the form of maltose, glucose, fructose, sucrose, lactose. To this we must add the excessive quantity of sugar present in industrial products. Thus an American consumes on average about sixty kilos of sugar per year and a European about forty. If every inhabitant of the globe consumed sugar of this type there would be no hope for humanity: we would have to convert all the arable land to sugar cane and beet and it probably wouldn't even be enough. A topic to reflect on and not a little when we talk about the sustainability of our behaviors.