The Vipeholm Experiments
Why were patients fed dangerous amounts of sugar?
4.7 (38)
50 mins
Discover the disturbing history of the Vipeholm experiments conducted in Sweden during the 1940s and 1950s. Explore how institutionalized patients were deliberately given large amounts of sugary foods to study tooth decay.
Ep 1:
The Sugar That Broke Sweden
A Swedish dental crisis and a hospital full of forgotten, intellectually disabled patients collide, setting the stage for one of history's cruelest scientific experiments.
Ep 2:
Toffee Engineered to Destroy
Government and candy manufacturers unite behind a fluoride-fed 'healthy' phase, then pivot to engineering the most tooth-destroying toffee imaginable and force-feeding it daily.
Ep 3:
Ignoring Nuremberg, Ruining Mouths
As the world adopts the Nuremberg Code demanding consent, Vipeholm researchers press forward, watching patients' teeth turn black tooth by tooth, cavity by cavity.
Ep 4:
The Candy Industry's Secret Data
The sugar industry that funded the study delayed damning findings for years, reformulated products, then vanished—leaving devastated patients uncompensated and untreated.
Ep 5:
Defending the Indefensible
Decades later, researchers defend the study's ethics while Sweden's beloved Saturday candy tradition masks the forgotten suffering that made it possible.
Ep 6:
The Price of Every Smile
A reckoning with what your toothbrush and fluoride water owe to 660 unconsenting patients—and why the powerless always seem to pay science's price.
Discussions (5)
Kevin
Level 8 · 3 mo agoNuremberg code literally wasn't international law
Emmett
Level 4 · 3 mo agoCandy companies funding the study to make a toffee that destroys teeth and hiding the data is supervillain shit
Seth
Level 5 · 3 mo agoFunding a study to rot teeth just to protect your product is classic market manipulation. Bullish on fluoride and shorting Swedish toffee 😆
