Revenge Served Sweet

By Andrea Sachs

The familiar pink packet has become emblematic of America's diet obsession. Sweet'N Low, the low-cal sugar substitute, was invented by Brooklynite Benjamin Eisenstadt, who also created sugar packets, Butter Buds and Nu-Salt. His creativity may be genetic: his grandson is the gifted pop-culture historian Rich Cohen. In his new book, Sweet and Low, Cohen tells the rollicking saga of Grandpa Ben's business, "taken over and stripmined by hooligans." The battle over this vast family fortune leads to feuds between siblings, corruption, lawsuits and the ultimate disintegration of the clan. It is Cohen's good fortune to be on the side of the family that was disinherited. Sweet revenge is the energy behind this glorious book. "All they have left me is this story," writes Cohen. "To be disinherited is to be set free."