The sugar boom
The 20th century saw a massive spike in the consumption of sugar by the average person in the USA. This began with the first “wave” in the early 1900s, when annual sugar consumption skyrocketed from around 8 pounds per American to nearly 90 pounds. But what caused this? One major factor was the 18th Amendment. The Prohibition of alcohol forced people to either turn to illegal sources for a drink or substitute it entirely with sugar. This lifestyle shift, alongside the dawn of mass-producing candy bars and soft drinks, made it easier and cheaper than ever to buy sugar in the USA.
What is Project 226
In the 50s and 60s independent researchers such as John Yudkin, started to research the correlation between weight gain and heart disease with the consumption of sugar, with data showing direct links. To save the reputation of the sugar industry, the sugar research foundation launched a campaign, paying scientists around $6,500 ($50,000 today) to deliberately manipulate the data, exonerating sugar and shifting 100% of the blame onto saturated fat.
The long term consequences
The lobbying efforts combined with the manipulated data, changed the course of the human diet for the next 50 years. This wasn’t just a simple corporate cover-up, but an abuse of their authority. Soon after the new research came out, the anti-fat narrative became official government policy, with many people switching to a low-fat diet, substituting the taste of fat with even more sugar. This spike in sugar consumption caused severe health problems, particularly in America. This can still be seen today with approximately 42% of adults in the USA being obese along with skyrocketing rates of Type 2 diabetes.
the future of sugar in today’s soceity
Today we know the real dangers of sugar, but that only started to make an appearance in mainstream media around 2016. During her research, Dr. Cristin Kearns found the paper trail that led to her discovering the 1967 Harvard bribes. With her new findings, she published them in JAMA Internal Medicine, sending shockwaves through the scientific community and mainstream media. Decades of deception were shattered, with new studies showing that saturated fats aren’t the evil that the sugar industry has made billions of people to believe.
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