Overview

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.

Full Product Details

9781935623052

Table of Contents

Reviews

A treasure trove of information about everything related to sweets and sweetening that readers will return to often to learn more and discover new information. -- Marc Aronson, co-author of Sugar Changed the World Deborah Jean Warner's Sweet Stuff is a superbly researched and engagingly written odyssey about America's love affair with sugar and sweeteners from Colonial days to the present. It covers many significant historical, industrial and scientific topics typically excluded from other sugar histories, and it raises issues associated with them in a fair and readable manner. So curl up in an easy chair, line up your favorite sweet foods and sugary beverages, and get ready for a great read! -- Andrew F. Smith, editor-in-chief, Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America This book weaves together the circuitous routes we Americans have taken to our collective sweet tooth. Warner demonstrates how sweeteners of various kinds have become part of the fabric of our communities, our policies, and our pleasures. -- Carolyn de la Pena, professor, University of California, Davis; author, Empty Pleasures It is hard to imagine that Deborah Warner has left undisclosed in this book any facts about all the sweetenings you may have ever heard of from honey to Splenda, sorghum to high fructose corn syrup. What astounding entrepreneurship, chicanery, creativity, inhumanity, productivity, lawmaking, speculation-the very best and absolute worst of American business spirit has accompanied the search for cheap sweets, and Warner reveals all. -- Sandy Oliver, food historian Like a hummingbird flitting from flower to flower in search of sweet nectar, Americans have sampled a diverse array of sweeteners in the search to satisfy our sweet tooth. Sweet Stuff provides an interesting and very readable history of that search-our inalienable right to sweeten our lives. -- Richard Hartel, professor of food engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison Sugar and other sweeteners are so intrinsic to American life that their history is worth exploring. Warner tracks some of the major threads (science and technology, business and labor, politics) in her exhaustively researched book. The abundance of references offers an excellent starting point for further exploration, and archival images enhance the text... Conscientiously researched and therefore useful for its references...Recommended for academic libraries. Library Journal Deborah Jean Warner, a curator at the National Museum of American History, provides a stunningly well-researched, lucidly written, and detailed look at how sugar went from being a very rare treat in the Western world until the late 1600s, to a mass-produced daily foodstuff today. The average American consumes about 150 pounds of sugars per year, she notes, and many ingest a substantial amount of artificial sweeteners. How an occasional and expensive indulgence transformed into a panoply of industrialized products and natural sweeteners is an almost epic journey... Overall, Warner's level of detail is impressive. Not only does she tackle every aspect of natural and artificial sweeteners' agricultural and manufacturing history, she weaves together the cultural, economic, legislative, and social factors that provided a fertile ground for more production. Particularly compelling are the chapters on artificial sweeteners, which blend descriptions of aggressive advertising campaigns with details of backlash against products like saccharin and cyclamate. Whether someone is attempting to cut down on sugar consumption or not, Warner's in-depth history gives context and meaning to one of America's most beloved ingredients. Foreword Reviews Warner's clear prose and meticulous research make Sweet Stuff accessible and valuable, particularly for those interested in analytical chemistry, industrial Brooklyn, and environmental history in Florida and Louisiana. Technology and Culture

A treasure trove of information about everything related to sweets and sweetening that readers will return to often to learn more and discover new information. -- Marc Aronson, co-author of Sugar Changed the World Deborah Jean Warner's Sweet Stuff is a superbly researched and engagingly written odyssey about America's love affair with sugar and sweeteners from Colonial days to the present. It covers many significant historical, industrial and scientific topics typically excluded from other sugar histories, and it raises issues associated with them in a fair and readable manner. So curl up in an easy chair, line up your favorite sweet foods and sugary beverages, and get ready for a great read! -- Andrew F. Smith, editor-in-chief, Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America This book weaves together the circuitous routes we Americans have taken to our collective sweet tooth. Warner demonstrates how sweeteners of various kinds have become part of the fabric of our communities, our policies, and our pleasures. -- Carolyn de la Pena, professor, University of California, Davis; author, Empty Pleasures It is hard to imagine that Deborah Warner has left undisclosed in this book any facts about all the sweetenings you may have ever heard of from honey to Splenda, sorghum to high fructose corn syrup. What astounding entrepreneurship, chicanery, creativity, inhumanity, productivity, lawmaking, speculation-the very best and absolute worst of American business spirit has accompanied the search for cheap sweets, and Warner reveals all. -- Sandy Oliver, food historian Like a hummingbird flitting from flower to flower in search of sweet nectar, Americans have sampled a diverse array of sweeteners in the search to satisfy our sweet tooth. Sweet Stuff provides an interesting and very readable history of that search-our inalienable right to sweeten our lives. -- Richard Hartel, professor of food engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison Sugar and other sweeteners are so intrinsic to American life that their history is worth exploring. Warner tracks some of the major threads (science and technology, business and labor, politics) in her exhaustively researched book. The abundance of references offers an excellent starting point for further exploration, and archival images enhance the text... Conscientiously researched and therefore useful for its references...Recommended for academic libraries. Library Journal Deborah Jean Warner, a curator at the National Museum of American History, provides a stunningly well-researched, lucidly written, and detailed look at how sugar went from being a very rare treat in the Western world until the late 1600s, to a mass-produced daily foodstuff today. The average American consumes about 150 pounds of sugars per year, she notes, and many ingest a substantial amount of artificial sweeteners. How an occasional and expensive indulgence transformed into a panoply of industrialized products and natural sweeteners is an almost epic journey... Overall, Warner's level of detail is impressive. Not only does she tackle every aspect of natural and artificial sweeteners' agricultural and manufacturing history, she weaves together the cultural, economic, legislative, and social factors that provided a fertile ground for more production. Particularly compelling are the chapters on artificial sweeteners, which blend descriptions of aggressive advertising campaigns with details of backlash against products like saccharin and cyclamate. Whether someone is attempting to cut down on sugar consumption or not, Warner's in-depth history gives context and meaning to one of America's most beloved ingredients. ForeWord Reviews 20110901

A treasure trove of information about everything related to sweets and sweetening that readers will return to often to learn more and discover new information. -- Aronson, Marc Deborah Jean Warner's Sweet Stuff is a superbly researched and engagingly written odyssey about America's love affair with sugar and sweeteners from Colonial days to the present. It covers many significant historical, industrial and scientific topics typically excluded from other sugar histories, and it raises issues associated with them in a fair and readable manner. So curl up in an easy chair, line up your favorite sweet foods and sugary beverages, and get ready for a great read! -- Smith, Andrew F. This book weaves together the circuitous routes we Americans have taken to our collective sweet tooth. Warner demonstrates how sweeteners of various kinds have become part of the fabric of our communities, our policies, and our pleasures. -- de la Pena, Carolyn It is hard to imagine that Deborah Warner has left undisclosed in this book any facts about all the sweetenings you may have ever heard of from honey to Splenda, sorghum to high fructose corn syrup. What astounding entrepreneurship, chicanery, creativity, inhumanity, productivity, lawmaking, speculation--the very best and absolute worst of American business spirit has accompanied the search for cheap sweets, and Warner reveals all. -- Sandy Oliver Like a hummingbird flitting from flower to flower in search of sweet nectar, Americans have sampled a diverse array of sweeteners in the search to satisfy our sweet tooth. Sweet Stuff provides an interesting and very readable history of that search--our inalienable right to sweeten our lives. -- Richard Hartel Sugar and other sweeteners are so intrinsic to American life that their history is worth exploring. Warner tracks some of the major threads (science and technology, business and labor, politics) in her exhaustively researched book. The abundance of references offers an excellent starting point for further exploration, and archival images enhance the text... Conscientiously researched and therefore useful for its references...Recommended for academic libraries. Library Journal Deborah Jean Warner, a curator at the National Museum of American History, provides a stunningly well-researched, lucidly written, and detailed look at how sugar went from being a very rare treat in the Western world until the late 1600s, to a mass-produced daily foodstuff today. The average American consumes about 150 pounds of sugars per year, she notes, and many ingest a substantial amount of artificial sweeteners. How an occasional and expensive indulgence transformed into a panoply of industrialized products and natural sweeteners is an almost epic journey... Overall, Warner's level of detail is impressive. Not only does she tackle every aspect of natural and artificial sweeteners' agricultural and manufacturing history, she weaves together the cultural, economic, legislative, and social factors that provided a fertile ground for more production. Particularly compelling are the chapters on artificial sweeteners, which blend descriptions of aggressive advertising campaigns with details of backlash against products like saccharin and cyclamate. Whether someone is attempting to cut down on sugar consumption or not, Warner's in-depth history gives context and meaning to one of America's most beloved ingredients. Foreword Reviews 20110901

This book weaves together the circuitous routes we Americans have taken to our collective sweet tooth. Warner demonstrates how sweeteners of various kinds have become part of the fabric of our communities, our policies, and our pleasures.--Carolyn de la Pe a

Author Information

Deborah Jean Warner is curator at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

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