CBC TV in Canada has shown this documentary last week - an eyeopener about the Sugar industry called Big Sugar.

http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/bigsugar/index.html

- that link has seven parts, including a quiz;

The main story is pasted here:

" Big Sugar explores the dark history and modern power of the world's reigning Sugar cartels. Using dramatic reenactments, it reveals how sugar was at the heart of slavery in the West Indies in the 18th century, while showing how present-day consumers are slaves to a sugar-based diet. A lost chapter of Canadian history is discovered, illustrating how 18th century sugar lobbyists in England used blackmail and bribes to determine the fate of Canada.

Toronto writer Lisa Codrington visits Barbados to investigate her family's connection to the Codrington plantation, where the ruthless slave master was also a sexual predator. Meanwhile, writer Carl Hiaasen tackles present-day slave masters. He describes how American sugar magnates in Florida, like the Fanjul family, wield enormous political influence through donations reaching $450,000 to both the Republican Party and the Democrats.


Going undercover, Big Sugar witnesses the appalling working conditions on plantations in the Dominican Republic, where Haitian cane cutters live like slaves. Workers who live on Central Romano, a Fanjul-owned plantation, go hungry while working 12-hour days to earn $2 (US). In a dramatic confrontation, Jose Pepe Fanjul is taken to task about his company’s unethical labour practices in the Dominican Republic.

The earliest protests against the sugar planters were spearheaded in 1785 by Thomas Clarkson, a Cambridge University student who mobilized the Quakers to end slavery in the British Empire. Clarkson and his pioneering human rights activists invented lobbying techniques that are commonplace today: political posters, logos, petitions and boycotts.

Juxtaposed against this historical backdrop is a tale of today’s battle against the obesity crisis and that crisis’ key suspect—sugar. Interviewing top nutritionists and food industry watchdogs, Big Sugar discovers the dangers of fructose and sugar-laden soft drinks. Vested interests collided at the 2004 Geneva Summit on obesity. A panel of the world’s top nutritionists was asked to determine a safe level of sugar in the human diet. Their report, "9-16", called for a diet restricted to 10% sugar. Angry sugar lobbyists and delegates from the Bush administration sprung to action in an astonishing power play.

Despite this setback, activists still challenge big sugar. The spirit of Thomas Clarkson lives on in heroes like Nicholas Dodds, a Grade 8 student who successfully campaigned to ban soft drinks from vending machines in Ontario elementary schools. Big Sugar captures the resolve of a generation unwilling to become modern-day slaves to a harmful diet full of sugar. "

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K - AS usual, corporate culture has taken up the reins of evil deeds in their quest to "increase shareholder value", all corporations' primary directive. They have to do whatever it takes to get those profits. Even illegal acts are secondary to that goal if the cost of getting caught is less than the prifoits the act brings. Immoral acts are way off their list of concerns.

AS it says, the medical scientists who actually care about people's health have all been shouting that 10% sugar in our diets is maximum that we can tolerate without having health problems.

Furthermore, there is the addiction. This is well documented right here in this forum, by you-all. As such, Big Sugar [referring to the industry] is not any better than a drug pusher, and by far, far far far, has done much more damage than all the drugs in the world have ever done. [thats my opinion anyhow].

Personally, as one who has taken morphine for over 15 years without much problem, and as a sugar addict who has managed to keep away from it for about 8 years now, I will testify that sugar is worse than a morphine addiction for my health. In fact, sugar and anti-biotics and modern dentistry have combined to create a monstor in me, and that is the very reason I take morphine.

Note - sugar withdrawals are not as bad as morphine withdrawals. So get off it.

Question - is HONEY okay? It seems to have anti-bacterial properties and it seems to digest well and not cause the acute problems of sugar, refined sugars esp.
But is the long-term honey consumption going to create candida and so on , like sugar?

AND - are blood-sugar levels affecte with honey too [just not as bad?]?

Karlin