The sweet things in life: give them to me, if they're sugar-free

History and Role of Sugar, and What to Eat When You Miss It. A Delicious and Healthy Cookie Invites the Senses to a Feast!

White sugar - stigmatized, beloved, cherished, and rejected simultaneously...
It is the main ingredient in so many temptations. Can we do without them? And should we? Is it really that bad? Can we indulge in sweet treats without guilt? Modern times confront us with more and more existential questions of this type. We find the answers in cookbooks, online, and on store shelves. And they are more than enticing. Among them is a wonderful sugar-free cookie, but with an extravagant "Mmm" taste.

And sugar is more than multifaceted. In her work "Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History," the founder of food anthropology, Sidney Wilfred Mintz, outlines five uses of sugar over time: as a medicine; as a spice; as a decoration during the period when it was a very rare commodity; as a sweetener, and as a preservative. Perhaps with the exception of the first, all are valid today. But, let's start from the beginning.


In the beginning was white sugar...
Thanks to bees and their tireless work, humanity has known sweetness since ancient times. Let's not forget dates either. The strong sweet taste tempted palates in a new, unusual, and unknown way. And then - someone, somewhere, tasted sugarcane. Eureka! The people of New Guinea and indeed the Pacific islands began to regularly enjoy the newly discovered treat by simply chewing the stalks. Neighbors, not wanting to miss out, also caught on to this sweet activity. This is how sugarcane took to the road and became a widely cultivated crop in Southeast Asia, China, and India. The latter, by the way, is responsible for the first production of sugar crystals.

Sugar arrived in Europe with the Crusaders. They brought it from the Holy Land under the name it was then known by - "sweet salt." Do you think it immediately became a favorite of everyone? No, only the wealthy and powerful of the day had the privilege of tasting it and falling in love with it. Sugar was a reserved temptation exclusively for them. It was valued so highly that it became a currency and a means of investment and savings.

What do you think the less privileged classes ate while sugar was a privilege only for the rich?
Exactly, they sweetened their food and lives with honey. After all, bees were "domesticated" an impressive 3,000 years BCE. In this sense, beekeeping may be one of the oldest crafts in the world. Since honey can be obtained almost anywhere there are bees, its price was relatively affordable. Honey is the basis of a number of past sweets - such as preserves, jams, sauces, drinks, and even "candied" fruits. Thanks to its medicinal properties, it is also present in a number of remedies.

Meanwhile, at the end of the 14th century, the first large-scale sugarcane plantations and its production into crystals, through improved technology, appeared. The place where a rapid boom occurred was the island of Madeira. Over 70 ships transported the raw material to Antwerp, the modern capital of diamonds, where it was refined into the familiar white crystals. At the beginning of the 18th century, sugarcane formed a full 20% of European imports. At the end of the same century, 80% of production was concentrated in the French colonies in the West Indies.