Sugar Blues

Sugar Blues is a book by William Dufty that was released in 1975 and became a commercial success. According to the publishers, over 1.6 million copies have been printed.[1]

In the book, Dufty makes the case that sugar is an addictive drug, that it is extremely harmful to the human body, and that the sugar industry conspires to keep Americans addicted to sugar.

The book's central argument is that a small dietary change, eliminating refined sugar, can make a huge difference in how good one is able to feel physically and mentally. Dufty even goes so far as to suggest that eliminating refined sugar from the diet of those institutionalized for mental illness could be an effective treatment for some.

Several authors have noted that Sugar Blues makes very wide-ranging and strongly stated rhetorical claims as to the ill-effects of sugar, including a role in bubonic plague.[2][3][4]

John Lennon was a strong supporter of the book.

References

Refined Sugar: The Sweetest Poison of All, William Dufty, (c) 1975, extract edited from the book Sugar Blues, first publisher Chilton Book Co., latest publisher Warner Books.

  1. ^ Sugar Blues, Amazon.com, accessed 23 December 2009.
  2. ^ "Dufty compares sugar to opium, morphine, and heroin, and calls sugar companies "pushers". [He] blamed sugar for everything from acne and scurvy to bubonic plague." Heather Hendershot, Saturday morning censors: television regulation before the V-chip, Duke University Press, 1998. ISBN 0822322404, 9780822322405. pp88.
  3. ^ Michael E. Oakes, Bad foods: changing attitudes about what we eat Transaction Publishers, 2004. ISBN 0765802287, 9780765802286. p101.
  4. ^ "William Dufty blamed most of man's ills on overindulgence in white sugar". Mark Pendergrast, For God, country and Coca-Cola: the definitive history of the great American soft drink and the company that makes it, Basic Books, 2000. ISBN 0465054684, 9780465054688. p302