[robertlagrant]

Humans have not eaten this much sugar for thousands of years.

[Wolfenstein98k]

They have not eaten any artificial sweeteners for more than a few tens of years.

[robertlagrant]

I'm contradicting the point that people have been eating this much sugar for thousands of years. I'm not claiming the reverse for sweeteners. No population's eaten this much sugar for more than tens of years either.

[bmacho]

All the living humans, in average? No.

But otherwise, individually, why wouldn't they? A lot of people had the sweet tooth, and the money, and they ate this much sugar, or even more.

[jedberg]

Because until recently it was very expensive to get sugar. Only the richest people could even afford any at all.

There were lots of things with small amounts of natural sugars, but nothing like the processed foods we have now.

[strken]

The Hadza get 15 to 20% of their calories from honey: https://globalhealth.duke.edu/news/what-can-hunter-gatherers...

[jedberg]

First, honey is not the same as refined sugar.

Secondly the article itself states that it’s the intense exercise that keeps them healthy, not their diet.

[strken]

In response to the first point, honey is predominantly fructose, glucose, and water. If you think sugar hydrolysed by bees is better for you than HFCS hydrolysed by humans, why? Is it the glucose?

In response to the second, do you agree with the original statement that implied sugar was damaging, or do you think it has no ill effects on someone who exercises enough? If walking 8 to 12km a day can completely counteract such large quantities of sugar in the diet, does that not make sugar harmless in many cases?

[HeWhoLurksLate]

Non-pasteurized honey (almost guaranteed to be what the Hadza consume) also has antioxidants and prebiotic properties that normal sugars don't.

[dtech]

I fail to see how this is relevant, if anything it's evidence of harm. Those people notoriously had rotting teeth [1] and probably a myriad of other health issues (many unrelated to sugar)

[1] https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/01/18/tudor-england-the-...