People used to eat very little sugar

Humans used to live on a diet containing very little sugar and almost no refined carbohydrates. Sugarcane was mostly used as a fodder crop to fatten pigs.

• Evidence suggests that sugarcane evolved in South East Asia.
• Chemically refined sugar appeared in India about 2,500 years ago, and spread to other parts of the world.
• Cyprus and Sicily became important centres for sugar production, but it was a rare and expensive spice.
• The island of Madeira was the first place to cultivate sugarcane for large-scale refinement in the late 15th century.