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EnlargeGenerally speaking, sugar was considered beneficial to health right up until the 1970s, when the new science of nutrition began speculating about its supposed links with heart disease and a host of other diseases. Dr Slare's Vindication is an early example of a defence of sugar, written in response to an attack by another physician. In fact, Dr Slare is something of a sugar fanatic, adding it to his wine, using it as snuff and even as a toothpaste. This page contains one of his case studies supporting the case for sugar: the Duke of Beaufort supposedly lived to a ripe old age by eating large quantities of sweets after dinner every night for at least 40 years.
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