Brief History of Sugar

500 years ago, sugar was a rare spice or medicine, imported to Europe from India. Then it became an expensive commodity primarily produced in overseas tropical colonies. It later grew into a less-costly commodity produced and traded among countries, and finally became a cheap everyday commodity, produced from both sugarcane and sugar beets. By about 1970, approximately 9% of all available food calories in the world, were in the form of sucrose. No other food in world history has had a comparable performance.
References
1 Koivisto, V.A. (1986) The physiology of marathon running. Sci. Prog. Oxf. 70:109-127.
2 Saltin, B., Karlsson, J. (1977) Muscle glycogen utilization during work of different intensities. IN: Pernow, B., Saltin, B. (eds) Muscle Metabolism During Exercise. New York: Plenum, pp 289-300.
3 White, J.W., Wolraich, M. (1995) The effect of sugar on behavior and mental performance. Am J Clin Nutr 62:242S-249S.
4 Glinsmann, W.H., Irausquin, H., Park, Y.L.K. (1986) Report from FDA's Sugars Task Force: Evaluation of health aspects of sugars contained in carbohydrate sweeteners. J. Nutr. 116 (11S): S1-S216.
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