Book Review: The Case Against Sugar
Eye-Opening Facts that May Change the Way You Eat
Gary Taubes begins his brilliant book, The Case Against Sugar, by describing a very rare diagnosis of diabetes in 1893. Starting in the late 1700s, physicians had been noticing that in urban centers, particularly among the “obese and gluttonous,” a similar set of symptoms were showing up in patients from time to time. Among these symptoms were intense thirst along with sluggishness, lack of energy, shortness of breath, constipation, a burning sensation in the stomach and other forms of digestive discomfort, and a variable appetite.
In the late 1800s diabetes was still a very rare diagnosis, perhaps one in fifty thousand according to Taubes. By the 1920s and 1930s, hospital admissions and mortality statistics were showing a steep rise in numbers, with some calling it an epidemic as well as beginning to link increased sugar consumption to diabetes. This trend has not stopped to this day. The current estimates are that upwards of 15% of the US population have the condition. Another 30% are prediabetic and/or obese. That’s 45% of the US population! What’s more, the metabolic underpinnings of diabetes and prediabetes—insulin resistance and inflammation—are increasingly linked to the origins of serious follow-on diseases like Alzheimer’s, various cancers, heart disease, and strokes.
In the book Taubes asks the questions: “Why have things changed so? How did we get here?” He proceeds to document the history, misconceptions, and outright lies and fraud that have accompanied the meteoric rise in sugar consumption over the past 100 years. It is a truly remarkable story, one that is still playing out in our diets, our lives, our medical treatments and hospitals, big business and advertising, and our government institutions.
Sugar, of course, comes from nature. In its natural state it always delivers fiber, for example in fruits. Seasonal fruits such as apples, plums, and apricots provide natural sugar with fiber, the way nature intended it to be consumed. (Sidenote: modern agriculture has engineered fruits and vegetables to be sweeter. Apples used to have no more sweetness than a carrot.) What Taubes is talking about, however, are the various forms of refined sugar, including Frankenstein-like compounds, such as high fructose corn syrup, which are the nonfibrous, “pure” forms of sugar. And just like alcohol and many drugs, refining the product and increasing its strength makes it more potent and addictive.
The food industry as a whole and, in particular, “Big Sugar” (the megacorporations that produce or use sugar in their products) play a nefarious role in Taubes’s book. On the consumer side, I see examples of gross misinformation everywhere in advertising and stores. (Why put all the candy on low shelves near the check-out stand? So children can see it!) But I didn’t know about the lengths the food industry has taken, particularly the soft drink, candy, and cereal segments, to soften labelling requirements and overtly influence governmental guidelines. This is still going on every day when attempts are made to restrict the use of sugar and better educate the population about its effects.
Perhaps the biggest ongoing myth is that sugar is some kind of reward or treat, a habit we get into as children and are hard-pressed to leave behind, no matter how much evidence points to the opposite. Another myth is that sugar provides instant energy. The metabolic truth of this has been shown to be false, despite the common belief in a “sugar rush.”
Did you know that sugar and tobacco have insidious links? They were both the basis of the slave trade, a horrible time when satisfying our cravings and appetites for these drugs was more important than treating people humanely. Ever since the 1930s, cigarette tobacco has been laced with sugar in the curing process. This made them taste less bitter and promoted smoking, plus it vastly increased the nicotine content, making the cigarettes more addictive.
Taubes lays out, point by point, the business, political, and scientific history that is the story of sugar, its effect on modern health, and its ubiquitous presence in our entire food chain. Among the many facts that struck me is that when insulin was first discovered in 1921 by Frederick Banting, and then produced for sale by Eli Lilly and Company in 1923, rather than see that discovery as a vital link in the metabolic protection that insulin provided, it was seen as a “medicine.” This meant we did not need to change our sugar addiction.
When our bodies produce insulin, it serves as a substance that lowers blood sugar, and it gives immediate increased muscle energy in times of danger. It is not meant to be present in our bodies all the time, trying to fend off our modern, sugar-loving eating habits. Sugar’s use and influence has continually and dramatically increased in the past 100 years. Using insulin as “medicine” conveyed that we now had a “cure” for our addiction and didn’t have to change our eating habits to stay healthy.
Taubes is one of the best writers and probably the most thorough researcher on this and other food subjects. His other books, among which areGood Calories, Bad Calories, andWhy We Get Fat and What We Can Do About It,andThe Case for Keto, are all testaments to his dedication to provide the accurate nutritional education we all need and deserve.
