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

Bear in mind that sugar is one of the cheapest preservatives available. Buy a food that’s shelf-stable at room temperature? It’s probably loaded with sugar, fat and salt (all of which serve the preservation function). They don’t have to taste sickly sweet as they are usually balanced out with acid (think Coke).

TL DR : It’s not that we add too much sugar ourselves to our food, it’s omnipresent in processed foods in vast quantities.