Sugar

In "Sugar: A Bittersweet History" Elizabeth Abbott takes a spoonful of sugar and tells its astonishing story, from its origins in the South Pacific, to the way it transformed eating habits in the nineteenth century, fuelled the Industrial Revolution, and generated a brutal new form of slavery and colonial oppression in the developing world. Finally, she explains how sugary products like ice-cream started the fast food revolution in the early twentieth century and made eating on the run socially acceptable. Now sugar is the chief cause of North America's spike in type-2 diabetes and the single crop that has caused the greatest loss of biodiversity on the planet. It has come a long way since it graced Cardinal Wolsey's table in the form of elaborate castles and churches. Richly detailed, impeccably researched and beautifully written, "Sugar" is both a comprehensive history of a substance that has revolutionised the way we eat and poignant testimony to those who made such terrible sacrifices in the name of the West's sweet tooth.