Sugar in children’s first 1,000 days linked to health risks in adulthood

November 1, 2024 – Having a World War II mentality during pregnancy and early parenthood can lead to lifelong health benefits.

Limiting sugar intake during pregnancy and the first two years of a child’s life can reduce the child’s risk of developing diabetes later in life. type 2 diabetes by 35%, new research shows. The risk of high blood pressure was reduced by 20%. Reduced sugar intake during pregnancy and childhood was also linked to a lower risk of premature obesity, although that link was less certain.

This is evident from a study published in the journal on Thursday Scienceresearchers made their findings after looking at health data from what is considered a somewhat natural experiment. The United Kingdom rationed sugar during World War II, and rationing ended in September 1953.

The researchers identified 38,155 people with health records in the UK Biobank who were conceived during rationing, and 22,028 people were conceived soon after rationing ended. The UK Biobank is a database containing in-depth genetic and health information on approximately half a million people in the United Kingdom.

“Rationing limited sugar intake to levels within current dietary guidelines, but consumption doubled almost immediately after rationing,” the study authors wrote.

Protection against reduced sugar intake in the womb was responsible for about a third of the risk reduction, the researchers estimated. Rationing was also linked to delaying the onset of the disease in people who developed type 2 diabetes or high blood pressure.

Although other foods were also rationed during World War II, people didn’t really drastically change their food and nutrient consumption, except for sugar, the researchers said. During rationing, people ate about 41 grams of sugar daily, but the amount increased sharply when more sugar became available, and people began eating 80 grams per day. The researchers also noted that children’s oral health worsened after rationing, and that early exposure was linked to a lifelong sweet tooth: The higher added sugar consumption among people conceived after rationing persisted when people reached their 60s.

“Studying the long-term effects of added sugars on health is challenging,” said study author Tadeja Gracner, PhD, MSc, a senior economist at the University of Southern California’s Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research, in a press release. The research team also included people from the University of California, Berkeley and McGill University in Canada.

“It’s difficult to find situations where people are randomly exposed to different nutritional environments early in life and follow them for 50 to 60 years,” Gracner says. “The end of rationing provided us with a new natural experiment to overcome these problems.”