12/18/2004: Fried Mars bar a delicacy in Scotland

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Karenv

My arteries are hardening just reading about it.

The Scots have the highest sugar consumption in the world? I'd expect the Israelis. At least the Orthodox Jews here have an incredibly high consumption of candy according to a friend who is a dentist in that community. (Most of it is pareve, so you don't have to wait hours after to eat your meat or dairy meal.) Or in Muslim lands where it is believed that sweet delicacies are a foretaste of Heaven.

Couldn't find a percapita sugar consumption list, but Cuba was cited as one of the highest 60-80 kg/capita versus 30-40 here and other sugar-producing countries are higher than industrialized countries.

It was a National Geographic article on Scotland and mentioned how the high sugar consumption correlates with the growing practice of giving dentures as a 21st birthday gift but that could be outdated now.
The US peaked in '99 at about 150 lbs per person.
I have a feeling any decline is attributable to the rise in other forms of sweeteners. I bought a jar of peanut butter that had a large notice emblazoned across the jar, "NOW 33% LESS SUGAR". When I compared it to the old jar at home, sugar and corn sweeteners had switched positions on the nutrition label. The calories remained constant which would indicate they upped the corn sweeteners as they lowered the sugar.