&gt; If it killed large numbers of the people that took it, they&#x27;d have stopped using it.<p>Eeeehh not necessarily, it just needs to be better than not using it <i>or</i> not being trivially linked to the stuff.<p>Romans used lead as sweetener both indirectly (making <i>defrutum</i> and <i>sapa</i> in lead pot which they&#x27;d found gave them a sweeter taste than brass — because of the lead leeching into the boil) and directly after discovering the extraction of lead acetate from litharge using vinegar. And lead acetate remained in wide use as a sweetener well into the european middle-ages as the only alternate sweetener was honey which wasn&#x27;t that common. Sugarcane sugar imports from India only started after crusaders brought sugar home from raiding sugar caravans in the middle-east, followed by the triangular trade&#x27;s massive sugarcane exploitations in the new world — and even then it would remain a luxury in most of europe until the 18th century.