Sweet Stuff: An American History of Sweeteners from Sugar to Sucralose

by Deborah Warner

The average American today consumes some 150 pounds of sugars, plus substantial amounts of artificial sweeteners, each year. How this came to be and how sweeteners have affected key aspects of the American experience is the story of Sweet Stuff . This book is the first detailed history on the subject. The narrative covers the major natural sweeteners, including sugar and molasses from cane, beet sugar, corn syrup, sorghum syrup, honey, and maple, as well as the artificial sweeteners saccharin, cyclamate, aspartame, and sucralose. Sweet Stuff discusses sweeteners in the context of diet, science and technology, business and labor, politics, and popular culture. It looks at the ways that federal and state governments promoted some sweeteners and limited the distribution of others. It examines the times when newer and less costly sweeteners threatened the market dominance of older and more expensive ones. Finally, it explores such complex issues as food purity, food safety, and truth in advertising. Sweet Stuff will appeal to those interested in food culture, American culture, and American history.

Genres: Food, History

304 pages, Hardcover

First published June 15, 2011

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[William Schram · Rating 4 out of 5]

Americans love sugar; this is clear from the food and beverage they consume. A simple internet search claims that Americans consume 152 pounds of sugar annually. Has it always been this way? Deborah Jean Warner affirms this in Sweet Stuff, her book from 2011.

For generations, sugar was difficult to find. It was a rare treat, and our bodies still treat it as such. Sweet Stuff does not discuss the physiological effects of sugar. Instead, it focuses on the historical aspects of its production. It takes a narrow field and explores it quite well.

The book has fourteen chapters. Each chapter explores one source of sweetness. For example, the first chapter discusses cane sugar. Sugar Cane originated in New Guinea about nine thousand years ago and eventually spread to China and India. The book discusses all of the necessary technologies and developments for sugar production. In terms of laws, it discusses the Sugar Trust, a group of sugar-producing companies that banded together to limit production and maximize profit.

There is a lot to appreciate about this book, which makes the aggregate rating surprising. It covers a lot of history and culture in a slim package. The only downside to this book is that it is dry and academic in parts.

[University of Chicago Magazine]

Deborah Jean Warner, AB'62
Author

From our pages (Nov–Dec/11): "The average American consumes 150 pounds of sugar a year—not including artificial sweeteners. Deborah Jean Warner, curator at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, details the science and technology, business and labor, and politics and popular culture of the products that have been central to American life since colonial times."

[Jessica Haider · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not quite my cup of sweetened tea...the book had a bit too much of a text book/scholarly tone vs how I typically like my food non-fiction (a la Kurlansky, Pollan etc).