the Latin calamus, meaning “reed.” The
Greek kalamos meant “straw,” and the
original Indo-European root meant “grass.”
The Italian calamari, “squid,” comes from
the same root! Perhaps the common
element is the brown color of dry grass,
partly refined sugar, cooked sugar syrup,
and camouflaging squid skin.
Sugars and Tooth Decay It has been common
knowledge for thousands of years that sweet
foods encourage tooth decay. In the Greek
book of Problems attributed to Aristotle, the
question is asked, “Why do figs, which are
soft and sweet, destroy the teeth?” Nearly
2,000 years later, as sugar cane was being
established in the West Indies, a German
visitor to the English court named Paul
Hentzner described Queen Elizabeth I as she
appeared in 1598:
Next came the Queen, in the Sixty-fifth
Year of her Age, as we were told, very