How Sugar Enslaved the World

The first 100 people to use code PRESENTPAST at the link below will get 60% off of Incogni: incogni.com/presentpast
Sugar is everywhere around us. But just 500 years ago the value of sugar was measured in gold. What changed?
00:00 - 00:33 - Intro
00:33 - 01:45 - Sugar is everywhere
01:45 - 03:41 - Paying the bills with Incogni
03:41 - 05:14 - Origins
05:14 - 06:20 - Sugar becomes a thing in europe
06:20 - 07:47 - Spreading sugar over the world
07:47 - 09:01 - How do you make sugar actually
09:01 - 13:40 - Abolition and modern times
13:41 - 16:50 - How sugar got so big
16:50 - 17:30 - cApiTAlIsm
17:31 - 19:47 - its everywhere
19:47 - 20:55 - consumer actions right now
Sources:
Ulbe Bosma (International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam) - The world of Sugar. www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.p...
I couldn't have made this video without this epic overview of the history of sugar production. Theres so much I had to leave out, but check out this book if you want to know more.
Sidney W. Mintz - Sweetness and power www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo...
An anthropologic view of sugar consumption. Very well written, that juicy english cuisine quote come from this book.
Michael Moss - Salt, Sugar and Fat www.amazon.com/Salt-Sugar-Fat...
Insightful book in how the food we eat is engineered to make us want more and more and more.
McCants, Anne E. C. “Poor Consumers as Global Consumers: The Diffusion of Tea and Coffee Drinking in the Eighteenth Century.” The Economic History Review 61, no. S1 (2008): 172-200. www.jstor.org/stable/40057651.
If you want to know how amazingly fast coffee and tea found their way into even the poorest households do check this out.
Noel Deer - The History of sugar books.google.si/books/about/T...
An older tome, but it has good statistics on the sugar trade.
Hi there, my name is Jochem Boodt. I make the show The Present Past, where I show how the present has been influenced by the past. History, but connected to the present and fun!
Every episode I show how history has influenced and made a thing, an idea or event in our present time.
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If you have an idea for an episode please fill in this form:
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[@ThePresentPast_]

The first 100 people to use code PRESENTPAST at the link in the description will get 60% off of Incogni: incogni.com/presentpast

[@pyeitme508]

Na

[@StarterOffical-Jousha-lf6ig]

Wait this postponed?

[@JadenGregg-su9no]

​@@pyeitme5083 REPLIES

[@williamzk9083]

I’m Australian, our bread traditionally doesn’t contain sugar but because of American fast food chains bread and hamburger buns have a lot of sugar. I find the taste revolting and unsatisfying but it just seems to be taking over the world. Part of the problem seems to be taste test focus groups which test people only on their first bite.

[@ThePresentPast_]

I didnt have time to get into the science of the 'bliss point'. This is the point where you just have to keep eating. A perfect combination of sugar, fat and salt. Its changing all our palettes.

[@kawh8719]

That explains why you can eat bread forever and never feel full. @@ThePresentPast_

[@java_siege_]

@@ThePresentPast_i can see you’ve read the book

[@KityKatKiller]

​@@kawh8719As a German this it's the most common critique of fast food chains or American style "bread". It's always what parents tell their children when they want to go to McDonalds for example. "No, you'll eat something proper, that actually makes you feel satiated"

[@HexAyed]

I think in the UK, Subway's 'bread' is actually classified as Cake lmao

[@creepinasicrawl]

You know shits messed up in my country (usa) when you have to pay extra to not have sugar in a product.

[@rustomkanishka]

The amount of power the sugar lobby has is phenomenal. They begin pushing the product from before you're born, and continue throughout the lifetime. I read about it in college. It's not pleasant.

[@t.n.h.ptheneohumanpatterna8334]

So what

[@azastudioart]

Do to a medical issue (not diabetes), i have to eat low carb. Its so hard. Everything has added sugar when there doesn't need to be. Its so easy to eat too much sugar. Thank you for this video! I've been telling people for years that we unfairly demonized fats. Glad to see more people talking about this.

[@ThePresentPast_]

that must be very hard :s

[@exosproudmamabear558]

I understand you I started to do keto diet to give lots of weight and my insulin tolerance. Even eating legumes is a calculated choice. Even plants have a lot sugar and eating a damn chocolate or soft drink out of question. A sedantary person need 50 gram of carbonhydrates and a very active one needs 100 gr. Just two plates of lentils almost enough to cover 50 grams and although it is lower even meat,yogurt,eggs,has carbs.. and fruits has a lot of sugar. The ones that extra added sugar? They are easily can feed you alone for carbs. It is impossible to run away in the process foods.

[@SandySalmansohn]

I did a strict ketogenic diet for almost three years to treat epilepsy. You’re right. Sugar is in so many foods. I had to make most all of my meals from scratch.

[@alexcarter8807]

Due to being in the US I have pretty much no access to preventative medical care, but I've lost weight on the low carb plan a few years ago so when I developed really bad headaches I decided to go back to low carb, lost weight again and headaches almost all gone. Fortunately in the US one can buy a blood pressure meter for not too much money, and you can even buy blood glucose meters for cheap too. You kind of have to "hack" your own health if you're not wealthy in the US. Between the aforementioned meters, google, and reddit it's possible to get a little grip on things. PS we used to chew sugar cane when I was a kid. Good times.

[@exosproudmamabear558]

@@alexcarter8807 In Turkey we have limited prevantative care too but at least its there. We have free psychologists,smoking and addiction centers, parental planning,dietician and family doctors. The most beneficial one family doctors since they are the ones who does all labatuary tests and tells you to do your regular scanning tests like breast mamography or colonoscopy. We also have some clinical ones who does preventative care in hospital such as general practioners ,physical therapy and rehabilitation etc. But best prevantative care in my opinion is a healthy life and Turkey doesnt have that. Unfortunately America has none of this. I see sometimes a case about extreme vitamin deficiencies such as b12 in the youtube and I watch it in awe since b12 is the most tested parameter in Turkey and it a very rare case to have severe deficieny of it. You guys have it tough.

[@zainmudassir2964]

R.I.P. billions of teeth worldwide which rotted away by sugar. Old human skeletons often have beautiful sets of healthy teeth which are rare nowadays

[@planescaped]

You don't even need to go that far. Just look at footage of people in rural Africa, south America Eurasia, or southeast Asia, they all have pristine white, straight, perfect teeth yet little access to dentists. They just have comparatively very little sugar in their diets. And the "British Smile" directly correlates with the UK's love of tea, treacle, and sugar. Refined sugar truly is one of the worst things one can consume healthwise.

[@MatheusKRamos]

In Brazil we had a whole economic cycle based on sugar in the northeast, where sugarcane was produced by the "engenhos". The dutch even invaded us because they were finacing it and the spanish crown didn't want to grant them access during the times of the Iberian Union. I recently travelled by car from Maceió to Recife and there are endless platations of sugarcane, it's mindblowing to think this lands have been producing sugar for the last 500 years.

[@gargoyle7863]

Living in Europe for the most of the time I thought sugarcane is something "exotic" for rum and some cocktails and it can't compete with beet and corn sirup anymore. Didn't know its still the most coast efficient sugar plant out there.

[@jasonhaven7170]

It was slavery.

[@johnfontana7256]

With any luck, most of those sugar cane fields in Brazil will be used to water down gasoline production, and not be ingested by humans!

[@vikramkrishnan6414]

Megasthenes explains why sugar was so loved by the Indians, it was hugely beneficial militarily. In its raw jaggery form, you have a concentrated energy source (low weight per kJ of energy), that needs no cooking (so no fires giving away your position), it can be given to both people and horses, and it doesn't spoil easily. The Seleucids took note and expanded its cultivation in their territories.

[@alexcarter8807]

I was just recently in an Indian market and there's a whole shelf for jaggery. Not terribly healthy, people!

[@bldbar118]

It’s only a problem when you make it into a small white powder. Sounds familiar. 😂

[@bradpnw1897]

​@@bldbar118as bad as sugar is at least it's not controlled by the cartels and completely a black market and illegal product. There is no safe or legal supply of the other white powders.

[@izzymosley1970]

I think this history of sugar really shows the extreme things people are willing to do for simple pleasure. But I also think it shows how people are willing to give up that pleasure in the name of morality when does people boycotted sugar made from slave plantations.

[@schmooplesthesecond5997]

sugar is not just simple pleasure. calories always have huge values any in human civilization.

[@jeffwilson8702]

Hi Jochem. In the early 60's the cane growers in the U.S. convinced the government to ban cheaper imports of cane sugar (we were all threatened with the price of a bottle of pop going up from 10 cents to 15 cents, and we were quite traumatized by the threat....). The soft drink industry got around it by switching to corn syrup, which is what all the soft drink makers have used ever since.

[@NoirMorter]

I don't consume HFCS, but raw and natural sweateners (honey real maple syrup and pure cane surgar do not have the same effect on me.

[@strawberryseason]

HFCS was not put in carbonated beverages until the 1980s

[@sbabcock7476]

I recently visited the Dominican Republic. And while driving from Punta Cana to Santo Domingo I marveled at the verdant fields of sugarcane stretching to the horizon on one side & the mountains on the other. At the time I was struck by the beauty of the fields & the richness of the colors of soil, plants, & sky. I thought of the rum that would be made from it & which I was looking forward to drinking that evening. I somehow forgot the brutal history of the crop. Now, after your excellent video, I think back at how much suffering must have been inflicted & endured in those fields over the centuries prior to mechanization. As well as how profoundly the exploitation of that single crop has shaped that country’s history & present. Thanks for the video! I love your channel.

[@alexmikhylov]

imagine if wedding cakes were multiple shepherd's pies stacked on one another instead one can dream one can dream

[@AlphaPreyPlays]

Well made video! I hope we as people on this Earth can come together and make the best choices for our future together. I know it's hard now days, where it seems our jobs and society at large is actively trying to keep people as busy and occupied as possible. But I look to the past and see people unify and create great change and I have hope our generation and future generations will too!

[@John_lemonn]

How would that be possible tho , both the government and big corporation are pushing sugar in our daily food . Since we get so used to it , it becomes a necessity for us . Don't really see a way out of it

[@jfelixm]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="40">0:40</a> Neither sugar nor salt have ever really been worth their weight in gold. I know it's just a saying, but quotes like that tend to stuck in people's mind. Please be careful using them. Otherwise great video.

[@erzsebetkovacs2527]

My only other critique would be on his claims about marketing sugar to soldiers. I'm pretty certain that it was mostly motivated by antiquated thinking (that is, thinking that sugar is a healthy, "pure" energy food) rather than greed.

[@SnapshotOfASoul]

There is currently a sugar strike at at the biggest mill in my area - there is NO sugar to be found. The idea you proposed around <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="825">13:45</a> is what is actually happening to a lot of products local to me. It's interesting to see what products use it and which seem unaffected or had stock to supply thru the shortage just fine. Of course, a lot of foreign products are absolutely unaffected, but it's been impossible to find certain bread, for example.

[@CatAnd-ws4cr]

Wow amazing thank you for sharing God bless happy holidays 🙏🙏🙏

[@kathleenking47]

After 1980, it got worse

[@RicoBanani]

in my part of Croatia we had 4 sugar factories, mostly using beets. It employed a lot of people and farmers in this big agricultural region. After joining the EU our national quota was cut by 75% and 3 factories were permanently closed. Also, I am a sugar addict.

[@karolinakuc4783]

Same with Poland

[@beatdown4785]

I've read John Yudkin's "Pure white and deadly" a year ago. I can only empathize on the presented evidence and data analysis. I find it mindboggling that people believe to this day that fats, especially saturated fatty acids are dangerous and cause cardiovascular diseases. The sugar industry went wide lenghts to discredit Yudkins efforts on informing the general public about the real truth about refined sugar. Can only recommend the book, great video guys.

[@alexcarter8807]

When I was a kid in the 70s I developed a real distaste for sweet, carby things. I thought I was really weird but I developed the deep conviction that those things are what parents and other powers that be, will throw at one in place of actual food.

[@cobithedoggaming2119]

Great video, the beet vs cane map was especially interesting. But what about the other big source of sugar, which is even cheaper in the US thanks to heavy subsidies, high fructose corn syrup? Many products use HFCS instead of powdered sugar there for that reason.

[@bradpnw1897]

Very good point! High fructose corn syrup is like the fentanyl of sugar. Fentanyl is chemical warfare on American citizens. High fructose corn syrup is its watered down little cousin but in almost everything.

[@TheLucasdms]

I live in Rio and it's interesting how sugar cane is still part of our culture. Even our coat of arms has a sugar cane on it. My parents have memories of suckling on it as kids and you can buy sugar cane juice at any pastel vendor.

[@danidejaneiro8378]

Not just the cane but sugar in general. Most Brazilians I know put several spoons of sugar in their tiny coffee so it’s almost like a coffee syrup. Brazilians desserts (brigadeiro, pavê, musse) and candies (paçoca, sonho de valsa) are way too sweet for most gringos, they have no flavour, it’s just a sugar bomb. When I make brigadeiros, I use unsweetened cocoa powder instead of Nesquik chocolate powder and it’s much nicer.

[@abelhapedras]

​@@danidejaneiro8378quando você faz brigadeiro... com leite condensado, que é leite + açúcar...

[@abelhapedras]

chupar cana é tão bom!! tbm tenho essas memórias 🥰

[@danidejaneiro8378]

@@abelhapedras - sim, por isso eu uso cacau em pó e não nescau como os brasileiros usam.

[@kiranp5611]

Sakkara is a Tamil word for Sugar and sugar is a very important thing in Indian culture. We have lots of different types of sugar and lot of festivals are connected with it. Diwali the festival of lights is celebrated with sweets sharing. In Tamil culture we celebrate Pongal, during which we eat sugarcane directly and it is shared with everyone and it is part of that festival !

[@albertolimon4463]

This is a masterpiece, thank you for producing this content 🙌🏽🙌🏽

[@meghanm05]

Man, this is just the second video of your I've seen and I really appreciate your style and approach! Will be watching more for sure, I'm learning a lot.

[@SisterSunny]

your videos are always such high quality

[@LuiePool]

Topvideo weer, dank jullie wel.

[@AdamsWorlds]

We used to have a saying growing up on a British council estate... Kid: Mum what's for lunch? Mum: S**t with sugar.

[@malkolmmonomoy7890]

Great video! Sent it to my history teacher as it pertains to a topic he brought up the other day.

[@ceefar10]

This was incredibly insightful, great vid keep up the good work!

[@TheRealSpeedWolf]

The last part is useless. I’m in Mexico, and this issue needs to be addressed at the government level when it comes to laws. Sugar is essentially a basic necessity, so making the consumer responsible for it is impossible. The option to buy sugar without supporting poor labor practices is only available to those who have the means, not the majority of people. It’s similar to the tipping system in the United States. In other countries, tipping is optional, but in the U.S., it essentially subsidizes underpaid workers, shifting the burden onto the consumer. Without laws addressing this, it’s just going to continue. Regardless of whether you try to do the right thing or not, you might feel better about yourself, but you change absolutely nothing. This is the problem to begin with.

[@ThePresentPast_]

I agree that the last part could have been better. We need government intervention. But not because sugar is a basic necessity. Because a necessity is the last thing sugar is. We’ve lived almost all of history without it. We need to impose taxation on sugar. Especially soda, especially in Mexico.

[@John_lemonn]

​@@ThePresentPast_I would argue sugar has become a necessity and will continue to be . Only better taxation would be possible

[@sissisfranz1893]

Amazing storytelling!

[@user-cd4bx6uq1y]

This video sums up countless hours of other videos much better then it is in those videos

[@karenarnett5167]

Excellent video! I like these world history through the lens of one particular thing kind of approaches. Some good food for thought.

[@rosesprog1722]

Fascinating, thank you.

[@davidcunningham2074]

very interesting and well researched.

[@sissisfranz1893]

Damn amazing quality pictures!

[@sjorslindenbergh982]

Dat was alweer een mooie video!

[@tumeta]

haha you're like jony harris but with sources. keep up the good work, liked and shared. Greetings from finland!!

[@Nattherat64]

Fantastic video, thank you

[@KamalSarmacom]

Amazing video. Brilliant

[@lastletsplay5035]

just found your channel today and i got to say your videos are real good even if you probably dont see this message greetings from germany

[@alexcarter8807]

I think it's something like half a teaspoon a day was the norm 'way back when. Plus, calories taken in overall were a lot lower, plus everyone walked a lot. Look at stats on the Amish, that was pretty much the norm. Also people used to routinely kick out at age 50 so there's that ....

[@sissisfranz1893]

Great Thumbnail and title!

[@Xeonerable]

Whether it be slave labor or obesity, the sugar industry continues to profit off of people's suffering. People crave it, it gives a "sugar high", and can cause serious health effects. We see that same cycle with drugs as well, is it really that much different? A couple of guys I know have type-2 and they've told me how hard it is to evade sugar because its in literally everything. I've been skinny most of my life but now I too and packing on weight and hearing that makes me self-conscious about my sugar intake and I find myself looking at health labels more often to see what the sugar content is. All of this just so a few people can get rich... and I bet that also have stakes in the healthcare industry too.

[@jayplay8140]

so succinct yet wide-ranging, excellent video

[@adinho7777]

very nice video! Please more:)

[@John_lemonn]

V high quality video 👌

[@nicdelmundo5687]

great video

[@richardcoughlin8931]

Table salt contains sugar! It comes from a mine; trace minerals are eliminated in processing; has anti-caking additives to make it free-flowing; must have potassium iodide added, thus “iodized” salt, which helps prevent a thyroid condition called goiter; often has sugar added to prevent the potassium iodide from breaking down into iodine, which evaporates away.

[@originalsusser]

French cuisine came about from French famines. When you have to make things like weeds, snails, frogs & possibly even shit taste good... well! England, on the other hand, had never suffered French style famine. When food is plentiful, the need for exotic flavouring is not there. To me, French cuisine has nothing to brag about!

[@nightwing4065]

There are research on rodents had found that sugar is more addictive than opoid drugs like cocaine. Nowadays, everything that we consume has refined sugar, refined flour, refined rice and high fructose corn syrup which are very high on the glycemic index. Carbohydrates are not bad per se, but over consumption of it may lead to a series of metabolic diseases like diabetes, obesity, inflamation, hypertension, stroke, cardiovascular diseases, etc.

[@ExperimentIV]

cocaine isn’t an opioid

[@skyworm8006]

Refined flour and rice, i.e. white flour and rice, are healthier though.

[@nancysutton7891]

Most animals have an inborn attraction for sugar - except cats.

[@Lawrence-Gabriel]

What I’d love to know is where did this myth that ginger ale helps stomach aches, the sugar in ginger ale inflames your stomach so much I’m shocked this myth lasted this long

[@x--.]

The placebo helps me on long flights -- though I have only heard the ginger helps, like ginger tea, never heard anyone say the soda helps -- too much sugar.

[@vikramkrishnan6414]

Because ginger is supposed to soothe your stomach, so people extended it to ginger ale.

[@adamjar]

Perfect. That's what I was looking for. Thank You. Decided to dump sugar, wish me luck ;)

[@MrFraiche]

Sugar is the real white powder we should be afraid of

[@contenteater]

Back to Coke 👃

[@Switzerleando]

I would also add the Marshall Sahlins article answering Sydney Mintz called "the sadness of sweetness" 100% worth reading.

[@xavierjc94]

Johnny Harris’s blueprint in full effect. Good video!

[@karolinakuc4783]

Good video

[@OrientisYT]

Damn why's this video not getting views? It's so good!

[@BadAssEngineering]

People like to talk smack about sugar and cane, but nobody talks about High Fructose Corn Syrup and how bad human health got after replacing sugar cane with corn...

[@benmcreynolds8581]

Seriously. That's the real modern day issue. If we could find a balance of how they use sugar in different products and stop this high fructose madness that's so widespread and beyond out of control

[@skyworm8006]

@@benmcreynolds8581 I've only had High Fructose Corn Syrup a couple times in my life and it was disgusting. I drank American softdrink/soda one time and it was sickly, I couldn't finish it. In my country sugar comes from domestic sugarcane. I don't know if the amount in products like soda is actually lower, but the taste is not the same.

[@sportm1lgrau550]

As a Brazilian, sugar has always been part of my life as a product and in the large sugar cane plantations a few kilometers from my home. Here in Pernambuco, sugar is still an important part of the local economy today, there are thousands of plantations everywhere. And I can say, even today the planting and harvesting of cane sugar is brutal, Sugar cane sucks a lot of nutrients from the soil, it needs to be taken care of, when harvesting - due to its sharp bark - it needs to be burned to facilitate the loading process, Imagine thousands of hectares burning, in an intense black cloud that swallows the air. Besides, in Brazil the work is not fully mechanized - my region - which leads thousands of poorly paid people to carry sugar cane for processing. I always like to tell my history students that the present largely represents the past, and the best possible example is to look outside the school windows and see the huge plantations from sugar cane, the old mills, the marks of slavery that they bear. Great video.

[@Biblical_Hippie]

this is so true! everything has sugar in it. i wanted to by a fish sauce for cooking and every product had sugar in it. my only option was buying colatura di alici, an italian fish sauce that costed 100€ per liter... sure the taste was phenomenal but i dont want to have to pay that much just to avoid sugar

[@StarterOffical-Jousha-lf6ig]

It about taste basically Nice video good job took great efforts.

[@ThePresentPast_]

thanks!

[@alexcarter8807]

When/where I went to high school, there was the yearly tour of the local sugar mill (across the street, basically) with the idea of inspiring students, if you were a good student maybe you'd get a job there. That "sugar in the raw" you find in stores is sugar-mill sugar, that smell/taste is exactly what a sugar mill smells like. Nostalgia in a packet for me.

[@youtuber_journalism]

I almost spat out my coffee laughing when you said you were on the internet all day for "work reasons" 😄 I felt so seen.

[@deez8202]

Tbh I am incredibly suprised no one has ever perhaps tried actually regulating what should and not should be in our own food

[@Jokkkkke]

Aw man Ulbe Bosma is so cool. I wanted to see him at the IISG but I couldn't make it

[@spanishinput]

Am I crazy or are you sourcing your music from the same place as Jonathan Harris? BTW, fantastic subject. People need to know this.

[@mimandshaindy4906]

lol Johnny made him famous! This channel was tiny before he critiqued Johnny’s video and Johnny responded.

[@xavierjc94]

I think this whole video is made in Johnny Harris’s format/style. All the way down to the ad in the beginning lol. I agree tho people need to know about sugar

[@Mikkihiiri27]

The last note was the best, indeed. We have to consider what we consume. Look into the ingredients, check where the company sources its ingredients from and figure out better diets consisting of less sugar added products.

[@johnfontana7256]

I love how the American dietary food pyramid recommends consuming the majority of our diet as low fat grain carbohydrates, with no apparent “ Evil” sugar, modern grains cause a higher insulin spike than refined sugar. Ancient Egyptians , being high bread consumers, were probably the first civilization to show the physical effects of over consuming carbohydrates( man boobs and paunch bellies, their statues didn’t lie)Heeding the modern dietary advice is what will lead to the predicted collapse of “Medicare” the canary in the coal mine , end product of a pyramid scheme !Kudos for your comprehensive research and content of this video!

[@nancysutton7891]

Fun and factual book - Death by Pyramid

[@21reyvillanueva]

never seen sugar in a different way till thus video. very thoughtful

[@tumeta]

Hey i'd like to know when everything happened, like for example at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="390">6:30</a> it would be cool if you'd have approximate years when something happened on the map. just my thought for future videos

[@guilhermeprado3665]

Could you make a video about the "sugarwars" in colonial Brazil ?

[@SRG-Learn]

Hey! we have the same monitors!!

[@ThePresentPast_]

its a good un

[@aiglv]

You almost ignore how hard on your body it is to cut sugar cane and then how risky it is to burn down the land were the plantation was.

[@kevinzebrowski6766]

can you explain the burning down land part here?

[@alu1728]

yup 👍

[@Not-to5kf]

Nica video but i wanted to add that sugar has been a part of our culture (indian) so i personally can't stop eating with it in my diet but after watching this i will try to reduce my consumption of Western sweets as much as possible....!

[@ThePresentPast_]

I bought some gur for this, didnt make it in unfortunately!

[@erzsebetkovacs2527]

But you are using it in small amounts as spice, right? That's different to the European and American way of consumption, where sugar is a cheap energy source, fueling and motivating workers in a work- and consumption based, often grueling system.

[@Not-to5kf]

@@ThePresentPast_ thank you for replying sir, but I didn't quite understand that statement

[@ThePresentPast_]

@@Not-to5kf For the biggest part of sugar history its unrefined sugar (like gur found in India) that has been consumed the most.

[@Not-to5kf]

@@ThePresentPast_ we locally call it jaggary and it is said to be rich in iron and other health benefits

[@nicholasdickens2801]

Buck Rogers was a truly great family show, like The Fall Guy or The Six Million Dollar Man.

[@today273]

Thank you for writing an expose of sugar. I like the taste of sugarcane, but i hope my country ends all sugarcane cultivation. - Omar St

[@zangasperic11]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="835">13:55</a> SLOVENIAN STOREEE? THAT IS CRAAAZYYY!

[@zangasperic11]

Very interesting video to watch. Great work! Also, I see the team is growing, very nice.

[@LuizHenrique-bi7sz]

Its interesting how you can measure the level of development that a civilization will have in the old days simply looking to the ratio of energy they can obtain of their food by the work and time they needed to harvest it. Looking in that perspective, you can explain the explosion of development of europe after the fifth century. They obtain a new form of high concentrated source of energy and the labor was doing by slaves. The perfect formula to develop a society. The people had abundance of food and time to dedicate to intelectual endeavors.

[@youmaycallmeken]

You can add a more recent development using government-subsidized corn in the U.S., high fructose corn syrup. This has replaced sugar in some products in the U.S. Personally, I cut back on sugar getting used to coffee & tea with no sugar. But I'd rather have sugar than artificial sweeteners (with the exception of concern about tooth decay -such as in chewing gum).

[@ruthvermeulen2098]

Those vitamin drinks from Albert Heijn do probably have some of the vitamins in there. I drank like 4 bottles of the magnesium and I raced to the bathroom in the middle of the night and it was not for peeing. They might have a lot of sugar in them but they do really work. 😅

[@Michelle_Wellbeck]

Not much cane sugar these days, now we have corn syrup sugar.

[@cyrkielnetwork]

It's not true that sugar was a luxury. Wild honey was one of the basic food for people who lived in forest regions of Europe. Also honey bees ware domesticated thousand years ago and honey was produced in ancient Egypt, Rome, and whole medieval Europe.

[@justinw5689]

What's this intro song? <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="22">0:22</a>

[@TheJayman213]

Please do the founding of Liberia.

[@deleted-something]

Oh boy

[@walterbushell7029]

Notice even in the 1950s people were thinner. We see this in old movies even the clips shown here. Small children are getting adult onset diabetes. The medical costs will end health insurance for most.

[@benjif2424]

Sugar in food and sugar in drinks are two different beasts. I've never met an obese person who mainly drinks pure water. Drinking 2l of water each day is the easiest start into a healthier life.

[@KityKatKiller]

Water is magic. It's not just about the fact that it doesn't have sugar. Drinking nothing sweet, means your tastebuds aren't constantly assaulted by the sugar. And suddenly you need a lot less sugar in other stuff.

[@benjif2424]

@@KityKatKiller this

[@skyworm8006]

Drinking so much water when you don't need it is not healthy. It's dehydrating actually. I don't get this fad. You will piss it out immediately. Food generally has enough water, and any other beverages you drink. I guess you are accustomed to constantly drinking something, namely sugary drinks, so you think replacing that with water without correcting the habit is better than it actually is.

[@benjif2424]

@@skyworm8006 first off, we absolutely need to drink. Secondly, the topic of how much water wasn't here till you brought it up. Without context (exercise, temperature,...) any generalized amount suggestions are pretty useless.

[@abelhapedras]

​@@skyworm8006drinking so much water you actually damage your health is extremely rare and difficult. AFAIK the only people to die from it are athletes drinking water during a marathon or smth, when they're replenishing the water but not the electrolytes they lost by sweating, thus causing an osmotic imbalance

[@stoneswordd]

If people stop paying for sugary products the demand would go down and food companies would need to change their ingredients. Most food companies don't care what they sell to consumers as long as people buy it and companies make as much profit. Eat healthy and read nutrition labels so you know what you are buying.

[@isidroguzman9815]

Problem is, sugar is a drug. More addictive than nicotine. If you got half the population hooked in it, with all the food industry co-opted by it, and everywhere you look filled with sugar-consummism propaganda, it's kinda hard to stop people from buying it; specially when they feel they physically need it. My wife has quite literal breakdowns from sugar abstinence and has a bad day if she doesn't have a hit or a dose of it.

[@pyeitme508]

Wow

[@johnobrien8773]

""Have you ever consumed sugar... or PCP?""

[@nelisdrums9024]

One side note on Tony Chocelony.... Well they started good, but now they couple their name to Ben and Jerry's wich is as we all should know a Nestle company. So they work together with the company who states that fresh water isn't a human right for fair trade !??! If you want good chocolate from a company wich hasn't sold it's soul go somewere else like Naturata.

[@dvtt]

That's a weird way to interpret the beet sugar dumping ruling... If the north is selling them cheaper sugar they are giving them cheaper food.

[@eva9996]

In UK, you can order "builders tea". It is tea with two sugars (two tsps of sugar).

[@ThePresentPast_]

Time to work on that dentistry!

[@liamwake557]

Good video but you failed to mention the first European plantations was Built by the Arabs around 8th century in south Spain

[@luciamanzanares7956]

It will be very interesting to do one about salt... just saying :D

[@ThePresentPast_]

I hope to turn this into a series, so who knows :)

[@John_lemonn]

Woh , is salt market also like sugar? I thought salt was a necessity since dawn

[@nmarks]

According to a Guardian article, an MP current serving in Parliament in London, Sir Richard Drax, is about to receive about £3 million from the sale of his family's former planatation in Barbardos, where his ancesters forced slaves to produce sugar which people in Britain naively got addicted to. When I learned this just days ago, it really brought hom to me just how utterly horrendous the sugar industry really is. From now on I'm taking an ethical stance against sugar as well as for health reasons. No more sugar in my tea and coffee, and it's sugar free options wherever I can get them. I do not want anything more to do with an industry that got the world addicted to a dangerous drug produced by forced labour.

[@baronvonjo1929]

Sugar is awesome. But we seriously need to reevaluate how much sugar we intake.

[@MrDDiRusso]

Fun fact: there is sugar in dog food and dog treats.

[@benmcreynolds8581]

I'd be really interested in the history of opium throughout human history.. a part of me wishes our society could have different perspectives. They demonize any form of substance. I really think there is a lot of people who could be balanced & utilize things in a way that isn't our current stigmatized stereotype. Sure there are bad apples out there but we shouldn't let that trick us that that is the only outcome. Our society is convinced there can't be any mild options for people because we've convinced us all that no one could possibly have self control... It's just a view point i don't subscribe to, and I'm speaking from a position of an array of experiences. I'm now 9 plus years past overcoming and learning from my youthful mistakes & ignorance & it's honestly taught me so much about self control and balance. It's really made me ponder about the concept we have towards certain things. I feel like if our society approached things a little differently, then maybe we could improve as a whole within our society. For example: what if our society had a slightly different standpoint towards certain mild relief options for people? I feel like that, compared to completely nothing is available, has a possibility of being really useful towards most people at least having some options if needed.. where right now there is No options and it seems like it sorta creates this higher likelihood of people going to other options that they otherwise wouldn't have if our society at least had some options for most people.. we shouldn't let the outliers paint our opinion on these matters because as we are clearly learning... Those outliers will exist regardless no matter what.. because they are right now even tho everything is restricted & unavailable at all. Doesn't stop those people at all.. So why should the vast majority of people get treated like those outliers even tho they clearly are capable of only utilizing certain things responsibly but our society acts as if that is completely impossible.. idk.. it's just a random thought I've had ever since I've had time to consider it & everything I've been thru, to now being where i am.. I fully feel like it's completely possible to allow people to have certain options because certain things do have beneficial attributes for certain things but right now there are no options and we're constantly told self control isn't possible. I'd like to see if people could prove that wrong in some ways. Adjust our current stigmas and stereotypes in some ways if possible..? Idk?

[@inuhundchien6041]

They are completely ok....as long as its not processed to hell. For example, sugar. If you just take sugar by munching on the sugar cane itself it is completely fine. But then you processed it into a white crystal thus it's deadly. Poppy seeds itself, if you just chew on that it's good for mild pain relief. But then people need to turn it into white powder. The distillation from a plant to white crystals and powders just make them too potent and thus deadly.

[@clivematthews95]

WOW 😮

[@aroundandround]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="8">0:08</a> Can’t believe the 1.8kg in 11 days number: that’s ~160 grams per day!