[UncleOxidant]

But I kind of doubt there's more sugar in food than there was in the 70s.

[profdevloper]

Late 80's / early 90's was the war on fat, so companies introduced "low fat" versions of their products that replaced fat with sugar

[UncleOxidant]

I'm old enough to remember a war on sugar in the 70s. My mom took us off of Lucky Charms/Fruit Loops for breakfast and starting making her own granola circa 1974. She was reading/hearing lots of stuff about the dangers of sugar in the diet.