Sugar in a way, functioned as a weapon: culturally, economically, ecologically and biologically
By Joshua Settee (he/him) // Contributor
The industry of sugar in North America is not simply one of over-consumption, it is an industry of conquest, control and cultural disruption. At its heart lies the transformation of a seemingly benign convivial sweetener into a global health catastrophe that helped uproot entire Indigenous communities and brought waves of chronic disease among Indigenous peoples.
Many Indigenous nations of the Northeastern Woodlands, particularly the Anishinaabe (Great Lakes), Haudenosaunee Confederacy (upstate New York and Ontario), Abenaki (Vermont and Quebec) and Mi’kmaq (Maritime provinces), harvested maple sap and processed it into sugars in communal festivals rooted in care of the land. Colonization disrupted these traditions, destroying them in many ways.
The establishment of the American Sugar Refining Company in 1891 marked a turning point. By 1907, this company would control 98 per cent of refined sugar processing in the U.S. Viewing sugar as a basic food and household item, the industrial complex repositioned it as a cheap, mass-market sweetener, a massive change from its ecological and cultural roots. Massive plantations and processing plants flourished and grew while Indigenous food systems and ecosystems were disrupted or outright stopped; their lands and foods stolen and diet forever changed. The consolidation of the sugar industry matters, as it reconfigured not only global trade, but consumption patterns of colonised peoples, including Indigenous nations.
In Canada and the U.S., Indigenous peoples now suffer disproportionately from type 2 diabetes. Among First Nations living on reserves in Canada, about 17.2 per cent are affected. Indigenous Services Canada notes that Canada’s Indigenous populations are among the highest risk groups for diabetes and its complications. One study reports that for some First Nations adults in Alberta, diabetes prevalence is 13.5 per cent compared to six per cent in the general population. The principal determinants include colonisation-era policies, displacement from traditional territories, erosion of traditional diets, food insecurity and limited access to nutritious food.
The Pima of the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona demonstrate one of the most extreme examples of how colonization and dietary change can drive disease. After the U.S. government diverted their river water in the late 1800s to support non-Native farms, the Pima’s traditional irrigation systems and agriculture collapsed. Their diet once based on tepary beans, corn, mesquite and squash was replaced by government-issued rations heavy in refined flour, sugar and lard.
By the mid 20th century, studies found type 2 diabetes rates among the Pima to be among the highest ever recorded. Later research compared Pima families in Arizona with genetically related Pima living in rural Mexico, where traditional farming persisted. The Pima in Mexico are still eating traditional foods and leading physically active lives, and have dramatically lower diabetes rates. The contrast makes it obvious that the epidemic wasn’t genetic; it was environmental and forced. The loss of food sovereignty and the forced adoption of sugary commodities lay at the heart of this crisis.
In Northern Ontario, the Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority serves about 30 remote communities, most of them predominantly First Nations. In a 2015/16 health analysis they found a diabetes prevalence of 12.9 per cent and an annual incidence of one per cent, rates far higher than those in the general Canadian population which is about 0.3-0.4 per cent.
Research has linked these numbers to the erosion of traditional food systems. One long term dietary study in a First Nations community in Ontario found that people following a “Beef and Processed Foods” diet high in refined sugars and market-supplied processed foods, and low in traditional foods such as fish, game and berries, had a 38 per cent higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes over ten years than those who maintained traditional diets.
The loss of food sovereignty, combined with the high cost and limited availability of nutritious foods in northern and rural regions, has created dependence on packaged and refined foods which leads to chronic diseases beyond even diabetes.
Recent interviews with urban Indigenous adults across Canada reveal how sugar sweetened beverages like Pepsi have become daily staples, even earning its own nickname “Bepsi” in communities across Canada.
In a way, sugar functions as a weapon: culturally, economically, ecologically and biologically. Culturally, because Indigenous nations lost control of their foodways. Economically, because monopolies exploited both labour and land. Biologically, because the flood of refined sugar into vulnerable communities helped fuel epidemics of diabetes and related illnesses while also ecologically disrupting land for plantations.
For Indigenous communities in North America, the path forward is not simply about reducing sugar intake, it is about restoring food sovereignty, reclaiming land and rebuilding cultural systems of nourishment and health. The monopoly once held by the sugar industry may have shifted, but the legacy it had remains and acknowledging that is just the first step toward healing.