By Steven Foster – What better time to contemplate our modern national obsession with sugar than the holiday season? Start with the sugar load of Halloween, post-Thanksgiving sugar blues, and the sweet treat-filled weeks leading up to Christmas. ‘Tis the season to give ourselves permission to cheat on sugar guilt, knowing that in just a few weeks we have the opportunity for the New Year’s resolution to quit eating all that sugar to which we have been addicted since childhood.
It’s an all-American perpetual tradition supported with immoral federal subsidies for sugar cane production and high-fructose corn syrup. Sugar is the real gateway drug to all other substances, which when abused, have a pharmacological effect, despite being labeled food, with negative biological consequences for the individual and society. We are a society blind to the effect of carbs gone wild. Some of you think I’m crazy for even bringing this up. I am crazed, since I am writing this under the influence of a chocolate cream pie I made for myself this afternoon. And I will eat the whole thing. Sugar should be heavily regulated and taxed like tobacco and alcohol. Those of you who don’t think my comments on this subject are silly, are probably sugar-free health food freaks or getting ready to inject yourself with your daily dose of insulin as you read this.
Per the United States Department of Agriculture, Americans consume between 150-170 pounds of refined sugar per year. We consume, mostly unwittingly, between 30-34 five-pound bags of sugar per year. Global raw sugar production for the 2016/17 period is 171 million metric tons.
In the early 1800s, Americans consumed four to six pounds of sugar per year. Mass production of sugar from sugar cane began in the 1650s. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603), the very rare commodity, sugar, was consumed at a rate of three pounds per year – and only by the Queen herself or those with whom she chose to share a smidgeon.
Indigenous peoples of North America introduced European conquerors to the kindly task of extracting and concentrating sugar and syrup from the sap of maple trees. It is a fine tradition, the art of sugaring, which I contemplate as I watch the last vestiges of maple tree foliage fade away for another season. The price of maple sugar and maple syrup reflect the real cost of non-government subsidized sugar sources. Think about that as we get ready to drain the swamp.