Just in time for Halloween, a new study finds that giving children sugar when they are really young — even in the womb — raises their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure later in life.
The researchers determined that limiting sugar exposure in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life — from gestation until the age of 2 — reduced diabetes risk by about 35% and hypertension risk by 20% and delayed disease onset by four years and two years, respectively.
“In-utero sugar rationing alone was protective, but most risk reduction occurred when rationing lasted beyond age six months,” the international team of researchers wrote Thursday in the journal Science.
The study authors used data from post-World War II sugar rationing in the UK to compare the health outcomes of adults conceived shortly before and after the decade-long rationing ended in 1953.
The study included 60,183 participants born between October 1951 and March 1956 — they were surveyed in their 50s or 60s.
Those born between October 1951 and June 1954 were considered sugar rationed and those born in July 1954 or later were non-rationed.
Nearly 4,000 participants were diagnosed with diabetes during the study period and almost 20,000 with hypertension.
“The risk of disease diagnosis increased with age for everyone, but it increased faster among adults with little or no exposure to rationing,” the researchers noted. “Disease risk started to diverge when participants were in their mid 50s, and the largest differences were observed after age 60.”
Eating a lot of sugar can damage cells, causing chronic inflammation, which has been linked to heart disease, diabetes, liver disease and cancer.
Sugar also fuels obesity — a widespread public health crisis in the US — and tooth decay.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans advise not allowing children under 2 to consume foods or beverages with added sugars.
Nevertheless, the study authors found that over 70% of formula, foods or beverages marketed to infants or toddlers contain added sugars.
By age 2, the researchers said, many children consume the recommended adult daily sugar intake of around 7 teaspoons, nearly tripling this amount by their teen years.
“Early-life sugar exposure may affect health by intensifying a lifelong preference for sweetness,” the study authors wrote. “Infancy and toddlerhood in particular are critical periods for developing a taste for sweets (or even addiction) that can elevate sugar consumption throughout life.”
One of the limitations of the new study is that the researchers don’t know exactly how much sugar the participants consumed in early childhood.
“Further research is needed to understand the optimal levels of added sugar consumption during pregnancy, lactation, and after the introduction of solids, as well as their pathways to influencing long-term health,” the study authors wrote.
