Man must consume food in order to live. About this simple fact even most academics would not choose to argue. One might even care to suggest that if food carries any absolute value it is its nutritional value. In fact, however, even this can be seen as a culturally-constructed value. Take the example of sugar. In the Middle Ages, cane sugar was imported into England in vast quantities from its place of production, the ‘leyes and pondes faste by þe ryuer Nilus’. As an imported good, sugar carried with it the exoticism of its foreign place of production. It was an expensive item associated with the luxury of the court. It was valued, however, not only for its ability to render foods more palatable through its sweetness, but also as a powerful medicine. John Trevisa attributed sugar with the ability to

He concluded that it was ‘þerfore most profitable in medicynes and in electuaries, in poudres and suripes’.