The story of sugar began in New Guinea about 10,000 years ago. People there picked sugarcane and it raw. Because it made people feel good, they saw it as a(n) 1. Drug that could cure illnesses. Doctors in India 2. Recommend that people eat it to stop headaches. But soon people began to eat it for fun. Demand for sugar rose , as more people became 3. Addiction to the sweet taste. By 1900, it was recorded that the average British person ate 45 kilograms ( 100 pounds ) of sugar each year.