Low-sugar diet in early life reduces risk of chronic diseases in adulthood

A low-sugar diet in utero and in the first two years of life can significantly reduce the risk of chronic diseases in adulthood, according to a new study, providing compelling new evidence of the lifelong health effects of sugar consumption early in life.

Published in ScienceThe study found that children who experienced sugar restrictions during the first 1,000 days after conception had up to a 35% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes and as much as a 20% lower risk of hypertension as adults. Low maternal sugar intake before birth was sufficient to reduce the risks, but continued sugar restriction after birth increased the benefits.

Using an accidental World War II “natural experiment,” researchers from the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, McGill University in Montreal, and the University of California, Berkeley examined how sugar rationing during the war affected the long term . long-term health outcomes.

The United Kingdom introduced restrictions on sugar distribution in 1942 as part of its wartime food rationing program. Rationing ended in September 1953.

The researchers used contemporary data from the UK Biobank, a database of medical histories and genetic, lifestyle and other disease risk factors, to study the effect of these sugar restrictions early in life on the health outcomes of adults conceived in Britain just before and after the illness. end of wartime sugar rationing.

Studying the long-term effects of added sugars on health is challenging. It is difficult to find situations where people are randomly exposed to different nutritional environments early in life and follow them for 50 to 60 years. The end of rationing provided us with a new natural experiment to overcome these problems.”

Tadeja Gracner, study corresponding author, senior economist at the USC Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research

Sugar intake during rationing averaged about 8 teaspoons (40 grams) per day. When rationing ended, sugar and sweets consumption skyrocketed to about 16 teaspoons (80 grams) per day.

It is striking that rationing in general did not entail extreme food deprivation. Diets generally appeared to fall within current guidelines from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the World Health Organization, which recommend no added sugar for children under two years of age and no more than 12 teaspoons (50 g) of added sugar per day for adults. .

The immediate and large increase in sugar consumption, but not other foods, after rationing ended created an interesting natural experiment: individuals were exposed to different levels of sugar intake early in life depending on whether they were conceived before or after September 1953 or born. or born just before the end of rationing experienced sugar scarcity conditions compared to those born just afterward and born into a more sugar-rich environment.

The researchers then identified those born around this time in British Biobank data collected more than 50 years later. By using a very narrow birth window around the end of sugar rationing, the authors were able to compare midlife health outcomes among otherwise comparable birth cohorts.

While enduring the period of sugar restriction for the first 1,000 days of life significantly lowered the risk of developing diabetes and hypertension, those who were later diagnosed with either of these conditions experienced the onset of diabetes. disease postponed by four and two years respectively. .

Notably, exposure to sugar restriction in utero alone was sufficient to reduce risks, but protection against disease increased postnatally once solids were likely introduced.

The magnitude of this effect is meaningful because it could save costs, extend life expectancy and, perhaps most importantly, increase quality of life, the researchers say.

In the United States, people with diabetes incur an average of about $12,000 in medical costs each year. In addition, an earlier diagnosis of diabetes means a significantly shorter life expectancy, with every ten years earlier that diabetes is diagnosed, life expectancy decreases by three to four years.

These numbers underscore the value of early interventions that could slow or prevent this disease, the researchers note.

Experts’ concerns about children’s long-term health as they consume excessive amounts of added sugars during early life, a critical developmental period, continue to grow. However, adjusting sugar consumption in children is not easy; Added sugars are everywhere, even in baby and toddler foods, and children are bombarded with TV ads for sugary snacks, the researchers say.

“Parents need information about what works, and this study provides some of the first causal evidence that reducing added sugars early in life is a powerful step toward improving children’s health throughout their lives,” says co-author of the study, Claire Boone of McGill University and the University of Chicago.

Co-author Paul Gertler of UC Berkeley and the National Bureau of Economics Research adds: “Early childhood sugar is the new tobacco, and we need to treat it as such by holding food companies accountable for reformulating baby foods with healthier options and regulating its marketing. and taxes on sugary foods aimed at children.”

This study is the first of a larger research effort examining how sugar restrictions in early life affected a broader range of economic and health outcomes in later adulthood, including education, wealth and chronic inflammation, cognitive function and dementia.