Sugar, we are often told, is bad for us. According to recent health advice, adults should restrict their sugar intake to between six and nine teaspoons daily. But what is more upsetting about sugar is its atrocious history.
Western Europe's appetite for "sweetness" helped fuel the horrific transatlantic trade of enslaved peoples, in which at least 15 million enslaved people from Africa were forced to work on plantations in the Americas. To this day, working conditions in sugar are among the world's worst.
