A new groundbreaking study has found that limiting sugar exposure early on in kids can reduce their risk of getting diabetes, hypertension, and high blood pressure later in life. The research found that the restrictions should be made as early as the first 1,000 days after the baby is conceived, yes including the 9 months that they are in the womb.

The study was published in Science and led by researchers from the University of Southern California, McGill University, and UC Berkeley. It found that children who experienced sugar restrictions during their first 1,000 days after conception had up to 35 per cent lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes and 20 per cent less risk of hypertension in middle age, and delayed disease onset by 4 and 2 years.

Sugar intake restrictions during wartime

The researchers used contemporary data from the UK Biobank to study the effect of exposure to sugar restrictions early in life. The health outcomes were monitored in adults conceived just before and after Britain’s post-World War II sugar rationing program. They analysed data from over 60,000 participants born between October 1951 and March 1956. Rationing was in effect during the war and ended in September 1953.

Tadeja Gracner from the University of Southern California 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. The end of rationing provided us with a novel natural experiment to overcome these problems.”

During rationing, sugar intake was about half (around 40 grams per day) of the level immediately following rationing. Meanwhile, WHO, as well as Dietary Guidelines for America adopted in 2020, recommend that children under two should consume no added sugars, and adults should aim to limit their added sugar intake to 7 teaspoons per day and consume no more than 12 teaspoons (50g).

What did the study find?

The study found that sugar restrictions in the uterus and during the first 1,000 days substantially lowered the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes and hypertension.

In our current food environment, sugar is available in almost all food items, even baby formulas, foods, or beverages. By age two, many children consume as much sugar as is recommended for adults. By the time they are teens, their consumption nearly triples.

“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,” study co-author Paul Gertler of UC Berkeley and the National Bureau of Economics Research said in a statement. 

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