Shun Foreman: The Dark History Behind Sugar No One Talks AboutShun Foreman: The Dark History Behind Sugar No One Talks About
The Kick Sugar Coach Podcast
Registered nurse Shun Foreman shares how researching sugar’s ties to slavery and convict leasing reshaped her understanding of health in communities of colour. She links this history to modern metabolic illness and her work helping women reduce sugar and reclaim a sense of freedom.
38:39•29 Apr 2026
Sugar, Slavery and Freedom: Shun Foreman on the Cost of a Sweet Tooth
Episode Overview
- Sugar is linked with far more than diabetes, contributing to metabolic syndrome, hypertension, weight gain, and mental health issues.
- A large proportion of enslaved Africans were forced into sugar colonies, making sugar a key part of the history of oppression and exploitation.
- Convict leasing in places like Sugar Land, Texas, sent Black men back into forced labour on sugar plantations long after emancipation.
- Understanding lab results such as A1c and entering medical appointments informed and confident can help patients take an active role in improving their health.
- Cutting sugar and ultra-processed foods can support clearer thinking, better mood, and a stronger sense of personal freedom, especially in communities of colour.
“We can’t talk about liberation, we can’t talk about freedom, we can’t talk about oppression without also talking about sugar.”
What remarkable journeys have people faced head-on against addiction? This conversation on The Kick Sugar Coach Podcast zooms in on sugar, slavery, and health in a way that might completely change how you see what’s on your plate. Registered nurse Shun Foreman shares how her work in healthcare led her from thinking sugar was “just about diabetes” to seeing a much wider pattern of metabolic damage, including weight issues, hypertension, and mental health struggles.
Her turning point came while reading about post-traumatic slave syndrome and tracing sugar problems back through her own family history, all the way to slavery. Shun explains how researching her master’s thesis pulled her into the brutal history of sugar plantations, convict leasing, and the erasure of Black experience from mainstream history.
Standing at the graves of incarcerated Black men in Sugar Land, Texas, and touring plantations in Louisiana, she realised “there’s so much of this conversation that’s left out” and that sugar had been a tool of oppression for centuries.
As the host puts it, “We can’t talk about liberation, we can’t talk about freedom, we can’t talk about oppression without also talking about sugar.” From there, Shun talks about her work with women, particularly in communities of colour, through her groups like Sisters Breaking the Bonds of Sugar and her Sugar Mode Off brand.
She stresses that “awareness is not action” and helps women understand lab tests like A1c, ask better questions at medical appointments, and see sugar reduction as both a health step and a form of reclaiming autonomy. There’s even a lighter moment as she jokes that her kids call her “sugar Shun”. If sugar has ever felt like a harmless treat, this episode might have you asking very different questions about history, health, and what freedom really tastes like.
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