A talk on sugar consumption and its relationship with capitalism and changes in human biology was held by the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute on Feb. 26. Located in the Homer Babbidge Library, the fellow’s talk was given by César Abadia-Barrero as he previewed his next book project.
Abadia-Barrero is an associate professor of anthropology and human rights at UConn with interests in activism and capitalism. His talk, “Sweetness and Disease: How Capitalist Sugary Industries Have Destroyed Human Biology,” focused on the first chapter of his current book project.
Before beginning his talk, Abadia-Barrero thanked various members of his audience for attending, including colleagues and students. He also noted that some of the students in the room had assisted with his research for the project.
Abadia-Barrero drew inspiration from the book “Sweetness and Power” by Sidney Mintz to explain the history of sugar before moving on to a discussion about humanity’s increase in sugar consumption.
“What has happened over the course of history?” Abadia-Barrero asked, switching to a slide depicting a graph that displayed this rapid increase. “What happened to human biology, when we changed our patterns of consumption?”
Abadia-Barrero then moved on to discuss how capitalism has contributed to this meteoric rise. He discussed The Coca-Cola Company and Nestlé, as well as ad campaigns run by Coca-Cola to decrease worry about sugar in American diets.
Capitalism is incompatible with human rights.
César Abadia-Barrero
“They flipped the public health narrative on its head, to say sugar is actually beneficial for you, because it’s a source of energy,” Abadia-Barrero said.
Abadia-Barrero also touched on the human body’s method of processing sugar through enterocytes, which he called “the protagonists.” He then moved on to discuss obesity and diabetes, linking them to ultra-processed foods, as well as explaining how the body processes insulin specifically. Human cells use insulin to make adenosine-triphosphate, also known as ATP, which acts as the body’s main source of energy.
“Without ATP, without glucose, we cannot survive,” he said. “Now imagine, if over the course of around 50 years that we’ve had ultra processed foods, this mechanism is altered.”
César Abadia-Barrero’s talk on how human biology was affected by capitalist sugary industries was held at Homer Babbidge Library on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. Photo by Connor Sharp/The Daily Campus.
Abadia-Barrero clicked to the next slide, featuring a long list of conditions. Cardiovascular disease, hypertension, various kinds of cancer, dementia, depression, Crohn’s disease — all of which are linked to obesity, Abadia-Barrero explained.
“We know that there is a relationship between higher disease and higher profits,” Abadia-Barrero said, before adding his own observations. “Higher profits are creating diseases. Can we demonstrate that capitalists have harmed human bodies?”
In the final section of his presentation, Abadia-Barrero detailed his current plan for the layout of his book. He plans to discuss the food industry, plastics and the war machine and outlined chapters related to topics of addiction, trauma and depression.
The event then transitioned to a brief speech by 2024–25 Draper Dissertation Fellow Yusuf Mansoor, who praised Abadia-Barrero’s ability to explain the topic in a way that was easy for him to understand despite it not being his area of expertise.
Abadia-Barrero then had the opportunity to answer questions related to his work. Questions were related to topics such as capitalism, biology and human nature. One of his last questions was related specifically to billionaires and their addiction to profit.
“Capitalism is incompatible with human rights,” Abadia-Barrero said. “Under this argumentation, it is incompatible.”