Sugar duty

“ A little more than a century ago, a thousand tons of sugar sufficed for the whole world's needs, while the year before the war, the world consumed some twenty-two million of tons of sugar. It is said that every man, woman, and {165} child in the United States consumed on the average every day a quarter of a pound of sugar. ”

“ We can mix sugar with anything we like, whether it had sugar in it to begin with or otherwise; and by sweetening and flavouring we can give a false palatableness to even the worst and most indigestible rubbish, such as plaster-of-Paris, largely sold under the name of sugared almonds to the ingenuous youth of two hemispheres. But in untouched nature the test rarely or never fails. As long as fruits are unripe and unfit for human food, they are green and sour; as soon as they ripen they become soft and sweet, and usually acquire some bright colour as a sort of advertisement of their edibility. ”

“ Sugar, from the strength of its own flavour, conceals and destroys in part other flavours, even that, the enjoyment of which we wish to preserve, such as the pleasant acidity of many fruits. A second inconvenience is this, that a large quantity of sugar is required in order to preserve a small quantity of some other vegetable matter; and hence the use of it is not only very costly, but even in many cases pernicious. [3] Thus the juices of certain plants cannot be reduced to a syrup or essence, but by means of nearly double the quantity of sugar. ”

“ Sugar is the most desiccating of all salts; it sucks the liquids of the blood through the veins; hence the coagulation, and then the solidification of the blood; hence tubercles in the lungs, hence death. That is why diabetes borders on consumption. Then, do not crunch sugar, and you will live. I turn to the men: gentlemen, make conquest, rob each other of your well-beloved without remorse. ”

“ Moderation in eating was advised at all times, and any serious excess set down as gluttony, one of the seven deadly sins. How much the religious counsels against excess may be needed nowadays even with regard to things quite harmless or even valuable for mankind will perhaps be best appreciated from the present status of sugar consumption in the world. One hundred and twenty-five years ago a few thousand tons of sugar supplied all the needs of mankind. ”

“ There are a hundred cures for the drink habit; there is not one for the sugar habit. As I cannot repress the desire, I have had to put all my energy into getting hold of sugar. I noticed some time ago that at these restaurants they give the sugar allowance to all customers who ask for tea or coffee, although perhaps twenty per cent. of them do not take sugar at all. It is these people who supply me with the extra sugar I need. ”

“ These other foods, be it noted, are present in vegetable candy.
The current idea that sugar is fattening is wholly wrong. It is not sugar that is fattening, but too much sugar. Only when sugar is consumed in a quantity in excess of that which can be taken care of by the human commissary department, is it transformed into fat and stored as reserved material. ”

“ It combines with oxygen and gives heat and energy. The waste product is carbonic acid gas, which is carried by the blood to the lungs and then exhaled.
Honey and maple sugar are good foods, but overconsumption is harmful.
Sugar eating is largely a habit. Because the sugar has so much of the life and so many of the necessary salts removed in its refinement it is a good food only when taken in small quantities. Nature demands of us that we do not get too refined in our habits, for excessive refinement is followed by decay. It is easy to overcome the tendency to overeat of sugar. ”

“ It is unnecessary to enlarge upon the sources of starch and its obvious utility to mankind. Previous to its being consumed by the plant in which it is amassed, it is by various means, but chiefly by diastase, transformed into sugar. Following this natural transition, I shall next consider sugar as an article of diet. In temperate climates, sugar is regarded as a luxury, one indeed which is nearly indispensable, but in tropical countries it is a universal article of subsistence, partly as real sugar, and partly, and more generally, as it occurs in the cane. ”

“ Alone it is incapable of sustaining life, because it does not contain any nitrogen. When sugar was substituted for an excess of protein in a ration, it was found to produce heat and energy at much less expense. Many foods, as apples, grapes, and small fruits, contain appreciable amounts of sugar and owe their food value almost entirely to their sugar content. In the dietary, sugar is too frequently regarded as a condiment instead of a nutrient, to be used for imparting palatability rather than for purposes of nutrition. ”

“ For there is no reason to think the constantly rising curve of sugar consumption has yet reached its maximum or optimum. Individuals overeat, but not the population as a whole. According to experiments of the Department of Agriculture men doing heavy labor may add three-quarters of a pound of sugar to their daily diet without any deleterious effects. ”

“ I am told that it is the custom to carefully collect the sap and bring it to the house, where there are built brick arches, over which it is evaporated in shallow pans, and that pains is taken to keep the leaves, sticks, and ashes and coals out of it, and that the sugar is clarified; and that, in short, it is a money-making business, in which there is very little fun, and that the boy is not allowed to dip his paddle into the kettle of boiling sugar and lick off the delicious sirup. The prohibition may improve the sugar, but it is cruel to the boy. ”

“ Only the well-to-do take sugar in tea or coffee and have it for common use. Our Americans also eat quantities of candy. At the present time children eat three times as many sweets as did their parents, and the amount is constantly increasing. Doctors tell us sugar is one of the fuels necessary to the human system; it generates both heat and energy. Possibly it is because our people work so hard and are driven at such high nervous tension that they demand so much of this sort of food."
"I never knew before that candy was good for us," ejaculated Bob in surprise. ”

“ There is an old prejudice against sugar which is quite unfounded so far as the healthy individual is concerned. Cane sugar has recently been proved to be a most valuable muscle food, and when taken in the proper way for sweetening beverages, fruit, and puddings, it is entirely good. ”

“ It is true, as is often stated in favor of the use of these articles, that sugar is a food element needed by children; but the amount required for the purpose of growth and repair is comparatively small, and is supplied in great abundance in bread, grains, fruits, and other common articles of food. If an additional quantity is taken, it is not utilized by the system, and serves only to derange digestion, impair appetite, and indirectly undermine the health. ”

“ Sugar is sometimes used in excessive amounts and, as is the case with any food or nutrient, when that occurs, nutrition disturbances result, due to misuse of the food. Statistics show that the average consumption of sugar in the United States is nearly 70 pounds a year per capita. In the dietary of the adult, sugar to the extent of four ounces per day can be consumed advantageously. The exclusion of sugar from the diet of children is a great mistake, as they need it for heat and energy and to conserve the protein for growth. ”

“ Why, Sir, it amounts to this, that the country giving the bounty encourages the production of sugar within its borders, and at the same time does its best to restrict the consumption of sugar by its own people by every possible means, so that the result is that there is an enormous surplus of sugar produced which must find a foreign market, and which under present circumstances can only find a market here. ”

“ If the United States were permitted to send us their sugars, which they would do to the extent of 50,000 tons per annum, they would take slave-grown sugar into their own consumption to the same extent ”

“ Because the fruit sugar, taken in fruit form, is not so concentrated and irritating as the common sugar, the child is satisfied with less.
Sugar is an irritant of the mucous membrane and therefore stimulates the appetite. This is true only when it is taken in excess in its artificial form, and it does not matter whether it is sugar, jelly or jam. For this reason jellies and jams should be used sparingly, because it is not necessary to stimulate the appetite. Those who resort to stimulation overeat. When much sugar is taken, it not only irritates the stomach, but it even inflames this organ. ”

“ But the chemist later tried to undo the ruin he had quite inadvertently wrought by introducing alcohol into the world. One of his most successful measures was the production of cheap and pure sugar which, as we have seen, has become a large factor in the dietary of civilized countries. As a country sobers up it takes to sugar as a "self-starter" to provide the energy needed for the strenuous life. A five o'clock candy is a better restorative than a five o'clock highball or even a five o'clock tea, for it is a true nutrient instead of a mere stimulant. ”

“ The problem of doing without sugar is primarily a problem of flavor—a problem of finding something else which is sweet. Hence we turn our cornstarch into glucose (make corn syrup, for example) outside the body instead of inside it, so that we can taste the sweetness as it goes down. The main trouble with this kind of sugar is that it is not sweet enough to satisfy us and we are apt to use too much, thus endangering our digestions by sheer concentration of what would be, in smaller quantities, most wholesome. Once more we see that nutrition is largely a question of how much ”

“ Thenceforward it must be watched with care, to prevent its boiling over, or burning on the bottom of the pan.
As soon as the sugar begins to show signs of graining, all hands pass up their saucers to be filled; and they are refilled an unlimited number of times, until all are thoroughly sweetened. For though sugar is the product of hard labor, and has a cash value, yet in all the sugar-camps it is as free almost as water throughout the season,—until it is grained and in the tubs, when it becomes property, and is held sacred. ”

“ It was hard to get white sugar most of the time, and the people had to use brown sugar, which came in barrels, and when the weather was damp and rainy that sugar seemed to draw moisture and got quite heavy. And each time the old lady got sugar she accused the old man of putting water in it to make it weigh more. ”

“ CHAPTER V VAN SPRINGS A SURPRISE
The room into which they emerged was at the top of the factory, and it was here in great vats that the dry sugar was melted.
"We often melt down as many as two million pounds of raw sugar a day," said Mr. Hennessey. "The United States, you know, is the greatest sugar consuming nation in the world. No other country devours so much of it. One reason is because here even the poorer classes have money enough so they can afford sugar for household use; in many countries this is not the case. ”

“ Two administrations have declared sugar a sunset industry, doomed to die. Maybe. All I know is that, sunset industry or not, I cannot leave three million families who depend on sugar in the dark, with nothing to eat after the sun goes down. ”

“ After we had finished our dinner Ld. Morpeth came to dine. He arrived in town only the preceding evening.
The immense price of sugar has defeated the avarice of the proprietors of it; various experiments have been made, first, to extract sugar from saccharine vegetables, and then to grow it in different climates. In Prussia they obtain 8 lbs. weight of good sugar from 100 lbs. of beet root. In America a settlement called the Notches, above the river Ohio, has grown a large quantity from the sugar cane. The price is only kept up by some commercial artifice winked at by the Government. ”

“ People put sugar into fresh milk, English porter, beer, and cheap wine;—they cook various vegetables with sugar, such as peas; they seem to be particularly fond of sugar-and-water and of d'leau-pain,—bread-and-water boiled, strained, mixed with sugar, and flavored with cinnamon. The stranger gets accustomed to all this sweetness without evil results. In a northern climate the consequence would probably be at least a bilious attack; but in the tropics, where salt fish and fruits are popularly preferred to meat, the prodigal use of sugar or sugar-syrups appears to be decidedly beneficial. ”

“ But man began to extract the sugar from the sugar cane, the beet and the grape and eat it in large quantities in its concentrated, unnatural form, and to put it in food that, without it, would not be relished, and which, therefore, should not be eaten until hunger gave its relish. ”

“ One has a remarkable craving for sweets when on the trail which only sugar will satisfy. Sugar is the most concentrated food we have for it supplies so much heat and energy to the body. In cold weather Nature calls for more heat in the body and one’s appetite for sweets usually increases in proportion. Much is written in camp outfitting concerning a preparation called saccharine or crystallose which is a chemical of remarkable sweetness—a small portion of it equalling in sweetening power several hundred times its bulk of sugar. ”

“ As showing its perfectly digested state, demonstrations have proved that fruit sugar may be injected directly into the blood, from which it will be utilized in nourishing the body. This is in marked contrast with ordinary cane sugar, which, if injected directly into the blood, is expelled through the kidneys, the body being unable to appropriate it as such from the blood.
Fruit sugar may be eaten in practically unlimited quantities. It supplies the body with heat and energy in the most available form. For this reason, fruit when eaten will quickly relieve the sense of exhaustion. ”