Desserts & Baked Goods

The Epidemiological and Metabolic History of Dietary Sugars: A Two-Century Analysis of Chronic Disease and Oncology The macronutrient composition of the human diet has undergone a profound transformation over the past two centuries, characterized most distinctly by the exponential increase in the consumption of refined sugars. From its historical origins as a prohibitively expensive luxury reserved for European aristocracy, sucrose—and subsequently high-fructose corn syrup—evolved into a ubiquitous, low-cost dietary staple worldwide. Concurrently, industrialized nations witnessed a meteoric rise in the incidence of non-communicable diseases, encompassing obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, and various malignancies.

Editorial angle: Desserts are not the only sugar source, but they are the clearest place to make pleasure intentional instead of automatic.

Novelty/format watch: cupcakes, cookies, doughnuts, frosted pastries.

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