The Sugar Associations Sour Past

“That’s the beauty of argument. ‘Cause if you argue correctly, you’re never wrong…Gentlemen, practice these words in front of the mirror. “Although we are constantly exploring the subject, currently, there is no direct evidence that links cell phone usage to brain cancer.” – Nick Naylor, Thank You For Smoking.

Thank You For Smoking takes a look into the world of tobacco and the tactics lobbyists use against the public. Like the tobacco companies, the Sugar Association has been using award winning Public Relations firms to clear sugars bad name.

Cristin Couzens, a dentist, decided to dig through the Sugar Associations past to see why leading figures were denying the harmful effects. Couzen’s found exactly what she was searching for, in 1,500 pages of internal documents, dating back to the 1940s.

In the 1942 report “A Suggested Program for the Cane and Beet Sugar Industries,” it states – in the opening line – that “ignorance concerning the value of cane and beet sugar to the human system has always been widespread.” The idea was to create a ‘foundation’ which would provide ‘facts’ pertaining to the effects of sugar on the human body. The report even blames the lack of sugar industry education to the ‘misinformed’ government officials worried about the harmful effects of sugar.

“Due to the absence of any educational activities on the part of the sugar industry prior to this period, ignorance of the value of sugar as a food extended to government officials. They, without the true story and because of much current misinformation, have absorbed the impression and belief that the public was consuming too much sugar.”

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