Sugar and Spice

I gotta share what I've been reading...

SUGAR

Known by many names such as glucose, fructose, and sucrose. Extracted from sugarcane in the tropics and sugar beets in temperate zones. Cultivation thrived at the expense of black Africans and other slave labour. Only became popular in Europe in the 1600s. Demand increased with the discovery of the preservation of fruit by sugar and the making of jams, jellies, and marmalade.

The world's sugar production rose by 700% between 1900 and 1964, when many developed countries consumed one hundred pounds per capita annually! Compare that with England's annual consumption of four pounds in the early 1700s. Addiction to sugar and the resultant health problems associated with the over-consumption of sugar have spurred on the sugarless industry (ex: aspartame, sucralose, etc.), which sadly has its own share of problems.

and SPICE

Nutmeg: Grown in Indonesia. Monopolized by the Dutch during the 1600s. Used in China to treat rheumatism and stomach pains, and in Southeast Asia for dysentery or colic. A hallucinogen if consumed in large quantities. Molecule responsible for its smell, isoeugenol, is very similar to the aromatic molecule found in cloves, eugenol.

Pepper: Grown in India, Brazil, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Motivated Columbus to sail across the Atlantic to find a shortcut to India. Black pepper, "a fungal fermentation of unripe pepper berries" (pg. 20). White pepper, made from the ripe fruit after the removal of the skin and pulp. Active ingredients in both black and white pepper is piperine. "Hot" sensation a person feels when ingesting pepper is not a taste but rather a pain reaction!

SOURCE

Napoleon's Buttons: 17 Molecules that Changed History
Authors: Penny Le Couteur & Jay Burreson

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