If cane sugar is the worst “natural” sweetener, why was diabetes so rare before the sudden increase of diabetes in the 20th century?

Question

I know around the middle of the 20th century vegetable oils, synthetic sweetener became a thing. But statistic wise doesn’t make sense, even if before it caused tooth problems, but not diabetes.

In: Biology

Answer 1

Sugar was quite a valued commodity centuries ago. Like peppercorns, people could actually pay rent and debts with sugar if they had some. That was how highly valued it was.

Then it became more common, more and more people could afford it, its usage went up. Higher sugar intakes increases the risk of diabetes

I can only speak for the UK. But for 10 years in the 40s, sugar was heavily rationed due to the war. When sugar was taken off the ration list. People overloaded on sugar as they missed the taste. Meaning an an entire generation grew up with sugar in pretty much everything. You can see cases of diabetes skyrocket in that generation