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Lead
The Ancient (And Deadly)
Artificial Sweetener
These days, we stumble across
artificial sweeteners every day.
Between the tiny colored packets of
sugar with our daily cup of coffee and the endless artificial sweeteners in
candy, cakes, snack foods, and dozens of other food items, we have our fill of
fake sugars.
However, before our modern advances
and wide spread of information about sugar and artificial sweeteners, did
people have ways to sweeten their food?
Of course, they did! People have
always found ways to add a bit more flair to their food when natural sources
were unavailable, but some of those spontaneous solutions had deadly side
effects.
The best example of this takes us
back to Ancient Rome, where the demand for flavorful food was always high.
Combined with the impressive
scientific heights and academics of Rome, new discoveries were almost
inevitable.
However,
when it came to the discovery of a new artificial sweetener (in the form of
lead acetate), the Romans may have been better off letting their food taste a
bit bland!
An Accidental Discovery
Now, with a name like sugar of
lead, we would probably pull back a bit here in the modern world, but two
thousand years ago, people were unaware of lead’s dangerous properties.
Therefore, when sugar of lead
was popularized as an artificial sweetener with the Roman Empire, people
couldn’t get enough of it.
This was the first of its kind,
and Rome liked nothing more than to be at the forefront of new discoveries.
However, sugar of lead is
scientifically known as lead acetate, which resembles common table salt,
but is actually a poisonous substance when consumed in large quantities.
In an effort to make things
sweeter, Roman winemakers experimented with all sorts of recipes and
preparation techniques.
At one point, it was discovered
that boiling off the unfermented grape juice that had been used to make wine
could actually produce an even sweeter liquid, called defrutum.
This highly sweet liquid was
valuable, because who didn’t like sweets, even back then!
Large quantities of this
defrutum were made, resulting in long nights of slow boiling to produce a purer
product.
However, extended periods of
heating lead pots caused some lead to soak into the liquid, which interacted
with the acetate ions, resulting in lead acetate.
This was the reason for
additional sweetness in the subsequent boiled-off product, as lead acetate has
a slightly sweet taste.
After noticing the sweetest
batches coming from lead pots, entrepreneurial producers went to a pure lead
pot process, thus spreading more of this liquid lead acetate into the public.
However, the story gets even
stranger, and more dangerous, from there.
Mass Production of Madness
In the ever-present search for
profit, Roman innovators found a way to crystallize the essence of this
sweetness – lead acetate, and produced it like sugar or table salt is produced
today.
Wine was in high supply in Rome
in those days, given that men could easily drink a liter per day, so production
of lead acetate was far from a challenge.
This became a wildly popular
ingredient when cooking, believed to have been included in approximately 20% of
meals.
Now, the Romans were relatively
unaware of the dangers of lead poisoning, but they were about to get a very
harsh lesson.
To understand the dangerous
levels of lead that may have been pouring into Roman gullets for decades, there
have been some modern attempts to recreate this defrutum with lead cooking
vessels.
The results are frightening… a
liquid with more than 1,000 times the widely accepted modern limits for lead
content in foods and drinks.
So, what did this mean for the
Romans? Well, the evidence suggests that a lot of people began showing symptoms
of lead poisoning, which include a metallic taste in the mouth and a loss of
appetite.
This also results in a lack of
feeling full, causing excessive consumption of food and illness.
The symptoms also include
vomiting, cognitive difficulties, hearing loss, irritability, and fatigue.
Now, with Romans swilling sweet
liquors and artificially flavored food packed with dangerous lead acetate, the
results could have been disastrous.
Imagine thousands of people
slowly becoming ill, including soldiers, politicians, leaders, tradesmen, and
peasants.
The entire infrastructure of
the country would weaken, leading to its inevitable collapse.
Many people believed that some
sort of poisoning caused the decline of the Roman empire, but most of the
speculations focus on the lead in the aqueducts of Rome.
Research has all but eliminated
that theory, but the widespread use of poisonous artificial sweeteners is
beginning to make much more sense.
Have We Learned from Their
Mistakes?
The Romans may have been too
hasty in their adoption of this artificial sweetener, but they were also very
smart and analytical.
It didn’t take too long for
medical practitioners and scholars to realize that something was happening to
the people of Rome.
Unfortunately, the negative
effects of this excessive lead consumption may have already been too
widespread.
While they eventually stopped
adding this dangerous substance to their foods, was this the real reason that
Rome eventually fell?
We can’t really answer that
question, but we do know that we’ve learned our lesson… pretty much.
While we rely on things like
aspartame and other artificial sweeteners, we have eliminated lead acetate from
our foods, despite how sweet it could probably make them.
However, lead acetate isn’t
completely eliminated, and it can still be found in certain hair dyes and
lipsticks. I suppose manufacturers don’t expect their customers to eat too much
of those particular items.
However, just be thankful that
you didn’t end up like the Romans – going a bit mad because of a sweet tooth!
John Staughton is
a traveling writer, editor and publisher who earned his English and Integrative
Biology degrees from the University of Illinois in Champaign, Urbana. He is the
co-founder of a literary journal, Sheriff Nottingham, and calls the most
beautiful places in the world his office. On a perpetual journey towards the
idea of home, he uses words to educate, inspire, uplift and evolve.
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