Why is there so much sugar in american (US) cuisine?

real_aurgathor · 2025-05-02T19:47:57+00:00

I’m currently eating some “Bush’s Best Country Style Baked Beans”, and it’s in thick, sugary syrup, almost to a point of disgustingly sweet. 😟 I grew up elsewhere, and while we’ve had several different dishes with beans, none of them had any sugar. Same with meat dishes – they had many different ingredients, but not sugar or any other sweetener. Sugar was used in deserts, cookies, drinks, food made with fruits, etc., but normally not much in main course meals. So why is there so much sugar in american cuisine?

HooRU

Sugar has been liinked to cancers.

Guy54435

HooRU Too be fair and not to be snarky, so has Air, Water and Dirt.

MacLeech

Guy54435 Don’t forget sunlight. Lots of cancer linked to that.

Oh, and some bacteria and viruses have been linked to cancer. So, just being alive makes you susceptible to cancer and the longer you live, the higher your chances.

Sorry, that’s definitely snarky.

real_aurgathor

HooRU Sugar has been liinked to cancers.

Reference please since my cursory search didn’t provide the evidence needed.

Sugar does not directly cause cancer, but excessive consumption can lead to obesity, which is a significant risk factor for various types of cancer

Guy54435

Cancer Research UK has this to say about sugar and cancer.
https://news.cancerresearchuk.org/2023/08/16/sugar-and-cancer-what-you-need-to-know/

real_aurgathor

Blackbird . At one time, both sugar or salt were necessities for food preservation,

While they both can be used for preservation, they were usually not consumed in excessive quantities – salted meat was either consumed in relatively small quantity with some other, vegetable based food, or some/most of the salt was washed off..

Of course that’s not the case for sugar; however. sugar didn’t become available in large quantities until relatively recently, even though it’s been available for quite some time in Asia.

800 BC – First historical reference of sugar comes from China, with the mentions of the India’s sugarcane fields in some of their ancient surviving texts.

However:

18th century – Until this point, sugar was very expensive and not available to general population of Europe and Americas. But, spreading of sugar plantations around the world managed to transform this item into very popular food ingredient. This move from very expensive to widely popular product brought great changes in the economic and social status in the world. Most notably, the need for establishing numerous plantations in the tropics intensified slave trade of African slaves, dispersing them all around the world, mostly to North and Central America.

19th century – Sugar was no longer considered to be only “popular”, but it was necessary food ingredient (for the first time normal diet included teas, coffee, jams, candies, chocolates, processed foods, etc.). Slave trade peaked in the 1st half of that century, but was reduced after the end of the American Civil War (1861–1865).

20th century – Sugar is commonplace item that is used regularly by everyone.

http://www.sugarhistory.net/who-made-sugar/sugar-timeline/

real_aurgathor

Sparkchaser It was very complicated, flour, water, yeast, salt and a brick oven.

Yes, those used to be the ingredients, and as a matter of fact, in many cases the sole ingredients in bread. BTW, that water usually had to be lukewarm otherwise the yeast would not not work properly, or take the dough too long to rise. And if the water was too warm it would kill the yeast.

To get different breads, one could vary the flour, yeast, temperature and time for rise, and the temperature and time for baking.

My family home used to have a hearth where we could also bake bread, but it was dismantled and replaced with a gas (propane-butane) range, and from that point on I was sent to the local bakery (a small business in someone’s home) to buy bread.

15+ years ago I was practicing some bread making for a few months, trying different variations and flavorings, but it was a bit too much effort. Once of my favorite was a bread made with V8 tomato juice.

In any case, here are a few ingredients labels:

a) rustic bread (closest to the original)

b) brown and serve enriched white rolls

c) bread for toasting

Only the last one contains explicit sweeteners (honey & molasses) and all 3 are explicitly stating the obvious: “Contains wheat”

Somewhat-Reticent

real_aurgathor explicit sweeteners

Like malted barley in the first, sugar in the second, …

telcodad

real_aurgathor and all 3 are explicitly stating the obvious: “Contains wheat”

Yeah, less obvious might be “Rye Bread” which also contains wheat:

But that’s the thing with the English language. Take “sauces” for example:

Lobster Sauce - contains no lobster, just used with lobster and other dishes.
Duck Sauce - No ducks were harmed in making that sauce 🙂 Used with Duck and other dishes.

But:

Soy Sauce - made with soybeans.
Tomato Sauce - made with tomatoes.
Chocolate Sauce - made with chocolate (or at least with imitation chocolate flavor).

real_aurgathor

Somewhat-Reticent

I stand corrected.

I’m not sure how could I miss that very explicit “SUGAR” in the second – almost like forgetting to remove rudder lock before flight, especially since there’s a barely perceptible tinge of sweetness to those rolls.

As for the “malted barley flour” – there is no perceptible sweetness to the rustic bread, and reading on it a bit more about it most of the sugary content introduced that way could’ve been converted during the rise.

Malted barley flour is added to recipes, particularly if the recipe involves hard wheat flour, to help yeast fermentation.

As the dough forms, malted barley flour in its diastatic form creates enzyme activity, which converts the wheat flour’s starches into simple sugars.

Simple sugars are crucial when making bread because the simple sugars act as the yeast’s food source to maintain the fermentation activity while aiding in crust browning.

Additionally, diastatic malted barley flour does not add much color to recipes since diastatic malted barley flour is only meant to help the fermentation process.

https://clockworklemon.com/what-is-malted-barley-flour/

Somewhat-Reticent

Yes, like saliva, malted barley brings enzymes that convert starches to sugars.
( Labels rarely specify whether diastatic or not. )
( Also an effective appetite / craving stimulant - enhance profits! )

Sparkchaser

Adding a bit of info to the French, Luxembourg trivia in a previous post.

In 1993 the French past a law that stipulates that traditional French bread must only contain the following four ingredients: wheat flour, water, salt, and yeast. No additives or preservatives are allowed. The bread must be mixed, kneaded, left to proof, and baked on the premises where it is sold, the dough must undergo a fermentation process, which is crucial for developing flavor and texture.

https://miarecipes.com/what-is-the-baguette-law-in-france/
https://voyoeats.com/the-history-of-the-french-bread-law-and-the-baguette/

dave

Sparkchaser

A good regulation to have.

meznaros

even if you don’t consume sugar direct ur body will convert your food into sugar (glucose) and pump it into ur bloodstream

ppl just eat too much

DrStrange

Will add my two cents here. A lot of food in the US is sickeningly sweet. It’s disgusting if you’re not used to it.

Astyanax

real_aurgathor
I grew up elsewhere, and while we’ve had several different dishes with beans, none of them had any sugar.

There are “dishes with beans” and there’s “baked beans”. I’ve eaten baked beans all my life and they’ve always been sweet to some degree. That’s how they’re made.

No version of it is intended to taste like lentil soup.

real_aurgathor

Astyanax

Baked beans was cited as an example – the question was about foods in general since there are a number of other foods made with meat that are also very sweet. I know that baked beans come from a native recipe where indians used a maple syrup; however, I tend to think that the original, native baked beans were nowhere near as sweet as some of the modern incarnations.

I’m not sure of its origin, but pork and beans is usually also fairly sweet, though nowhere near to baked beans. However, there are also some canned peas and beans that contain some sugar for seemingly no good reason.

dave

There is sugar in the typical UK baked bean recipe (e.g. Heinz Baked Beans, probably the leading brand) but it’s much lower than US baked beans.

UK baked beans have no molasses, no meat, and do have tomatoes. They’re naturally vegan, even before that was a thing. The sugar offsets the acidity of the tomato.

real_aurgathor

dave UK baked beans have no molasses, no meat, and do have tomatoes.

The US baked beans (at least the ones I inherited) has no tomatoes, and I’m fairly certain that was the case for the original, native recipe since tomatoes came from south America. However, most other “beans” I’ve seen do have tomatoes is some shape or form.

Somewhat-Reticent

dave The sugar offsets the acidity of the tomato.

A little sugar enables and enhances detection of ( tomato ) flavor. ( A lot. )
( biochemistry! )

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