Sugar, aka, the crystal white dust which sweetens and speeds up one’s road to the Grim Reaper. Believe it or not, sugar was at one time considered a medicine. It was also a rarity once upon a time in history and could only be afforded by the wealthy.
For a period, sugar was also categorized as a spice and unfortunately had a major role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Sugar comes from sugarcane which is a species of tall, perennial grass that is used for sugar production.
The people at The Saint Lauretia Project laid it out the best: “Hundreds of thousands of enslaved men, women and children were brought from Africa to the Caribbean and America so that Europeans could have sugar and rum, the main products of sugar cane.”
Crack cocaine hit the world something awful and the impact is still being felt to this very day, but the sugar industry hit harder and longer. As for the current day health effects of sugar, imagine if the effects of sugar had wrecking effects on the brain similar to how cocaine affects the brain.
Well, some studies say that it does, and with the way that sugar is baked into our society and culture, it’s not a mystery how so many of us are addicted to sugar. New York writer Emma Betuel sheds some light on the similarities between the twin white powders, “Sugar alters brain circuitry in ways that are similar to, for example, cocaine, which is well known to alter the dopamine and opioid systems in the brain.”
Dr. Nancy Appleton compiled a list of reasons that sugar ruins one’s health. Things like premature aging, leading to various cancers, and that it can cause heart diseases, And that’s only a few of the 146 reasons she presented that sugar ruins your health.
Amazing that something tastes so sweet, with a bloody history, and still has such a current strong hold on society’s taste buds. Some reports say approximately 75% of Americans eat sugar in excess and many of that percentage could be considered addicted to it.
The below video discusses the healthy, natural sugars that are in various foods and the healthy process in which your body utilizes natural sugars as fuel, unlike refined and processed sugar.
Words by Kaba Abdul-Fattaah
