Reducing a child’s sugar consumption during the first two years of life can prevent them from developing chronic diseases in adulthood, latest research has highlighted.
A new study has found that women following a low-sugar diet while they are pregnant can also protect their babies from developing midlife chronic diseases.
Children with a low sugar intake during their first 1,000 days after conception are 35% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes later in life compared to those with a higher intake.
In addition, children who experience sugar restrictions are 20% less likely to experience hypertension during adulthood compared to those with no limits to sugar.
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Researchers from USC Dornsife College of Letters, McGill University and the University of California analysed how long-term health outcomes were influenced by sugar rationing during World War II.
Sugar distribution was limited in the UK in 1942 as part of the wartime food rationing programme, which lasted until September 1953.
Lead author Tadeja Gracner said: “Studying the long-term effects of added sugar on health is challenging.
“It is hard to find situations where people are randomly exposed to different nutritional environments early in life and follow them for 50 to 60 years.”
Tadeja Gracner added: “The end of rationing provided us with a novel natural experiment to overcome these problems.”
During the World War II rationing, sugar was limited to 40 grams per day on average, equivalent to eight teaspoons. Once the rationing was ended it went to 16 teaspoons (80 grams) per day.
Children who were born just before the end of rationing had a lower sugar intake, while those born just after consumed more sugar.
According to the findings, the children who experience sugar restrictions during the first 1,000 days of life were significantly less at risk of developing type 2 diabetes and hypertension.
Researchers have said that sugar restrictions in the utero alone can reduce risks of midlife chronic disease, but this lowered more once solids were introduced.
The authors said: “The magnitude of this effect is meaningful as it can save costs, extend life expectancy and perhaps more importantly, quality of life.”
Fellow author Claire Boone said: “Parents need information about what works, and this study provides some of the first causal evidence that reducing added sugar early in life is a powerful step towards improving children’s health over their lifetimes.”
Corresponding author Paul Gertler added: “Sugar early in life is the new tobacco, and we should treat it as such by holding food companies accountable to reformulate baby foods with healthier options and regulate the marketing and tax sugary foods targeted at kids.”
Read the full study in the journal Science.
