US Per Capita Sugar Consumption Grew Twenty-Fold During the 19th Century
Gary Taubes · #25 Gary Taubes: Is Sugar Slowly Killing Us · Nov 30, 2017 · at 14:45
Science journalist Gary Taubes discusses historical estimates of per-capita sugar intake in the United States over the course of the 19th century.
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“Sugar over the course of the 19th century went from being a sort of expensive luxury in the beginning of the 19th century when Americans, for instance, probably consumed less than in the neighborhood of five pounds per person per year. So that's the equivalent of maybe, you know, I don't know, four ounces of sugary beverage per day, probably less to by the end of the 19th century consuming the neighborhood of 80 or 90 pounds per person per year, so, you know, the neighborhood of a twenty-fold increase”
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