“SWEET FOR THE SICK”: CONSIDERATIONS ON THE MEDICAL USE OF SUGAR IN COLONIAL CHILE. THE CASE OF THE NUNS OF SANTIAGO (s. XVII-XVIII)

This article aims to contribute to the history of sugar in the Kingdom of Chile, specifically analyzing the medical importance it had for the nuns of Santiago during the colonial era, mainly for its renowned therapeutic properties. Through the crossing between unpublished conventual sources (account books, letters, and confessional writings) and other published sources of the time and considering the theoretical approaches of the cultural history of food, highly influenced by the anthropology of food; The medical use that these women gave to the processed sucrose is demonstrated. Likewise, this phenomenon is explained from an ancient Hispanic-Arab tradition, spread in Chile through cookbooks and medical treatises.