Sugar Blues by William Dufty

Sugar Blues

I agree with the main premise of Sugar Blues--that Sugar is the most harmful food in our diet today--but I think the book is a little bit over the top. Several threads run through this book. William Dufty traces the history of sugar from the ancient India to the modern day. He tells his personal story of sugar addiction, explains the health problems caused by sugar, and describes how corporate interests keep the dangers of sugar hidden.

Dufty's history is where I had the most disagreements. He does not cite many sources and makes strong allegations. I know some of the points that he made such as those about witch burning are incorrect, but my history is not strong enough to critique his overall accuracy. My guess is that his general historical narrative is correct but many of the minor points are wrong. Throughout history sugar has migrated throughout the world causing health problems and weakening civilizations; however, it is addictive so everyone uses it anyway. When a strong people or army discovers sugar, they instantly take it up and become lazy and weak leading to their downfall.

The history historical narrative ties into the problem of corporate interests. It may seem odd for me, an anarcho-capitalist, to decry big corporations, but this book illustrates the libertarian critique of corporatism. Big food companies have always wanted to use sugar because it allowed them to make their products less expensively unfortunately the sugar also greatly reduced quality. Consumers have generally revolted against being forced to eat these sugar laced products, so corporations have called upon the government to "regulate" them. One example of this occurred in England. Brewers discovered how to use sugar to brew beer less expensively, but this cheap beer had an inferior taste. Anyone who sold people beer made using sugar would be run out of town when people learned of the fraud. Eventually the government created an agency to monitor beer production and prevent the beer brewers using sugar during fermentation. Shortly after the founding of this agency, the agency changed its opinion and allowed beer manufacturers to use sugar. The consumers were helpless against the power of the government. This type of tale has repeated itself over and over during sugar's history.

Dufty discusses many dangers from sugar which I had not thought about before reading the book. I have written about these issues in more depth on my Complete Body blog. First, he describes how the health problems from smoking cigarettes may largely stem from drying the tobacco leaves too quickly causing sugar to form. A second anecdote is that many driving accidents may be caused by sugar. We all know that you get drowsy after a sugar high. Sugary products are sold along the highway everywhere. A driver will eat some sugary food, experience a sugar high, and then following low--at this point he is more vulnerable to getting in an accident. One crash will lead to another. Third, sugar makes you taste better to mosquitoes and increases your chance of getting bitten.

I would recommend reading Sugar Blues, but read it with a grain of salt. I think Dufty goes overboard in many sections of this polemic, but his central point is true. If you get a little too scared of sugar, it will not do you any harm.