A new study suggests that the earliest years of life may shape heart health for decades to come and that limiting sugar in pregnancy and infancy could have lasting benefits.
Researchers writing in The BMJ analyzed data from people born in Britain during and after the end of postwar sugar rationing. They found that those whose mothers and early diets were subject to rationing, meaning they consumed little to no added sugar from conception through early childhood, had significantly lower rates of heart disease and stroke later in life.
The study examined health data from more than 63,000 UK Biobank participants born between 1951 and 1956. Using the official end of sugar rationing in September 1953 as a natural experiment, the researchers compared people who experienced sugar limits in utero and during infancy with those who were born after rationing ended.
They found that people who were exposed to sugar restrictions from conception through about age 2 had up to a 20% lower risk of cardiovascular disease in adulthood, including lower risks of heart attack (25%), heart failure (26%), stroke (31%) and cardiovascular death (27%). These individuals also developed heart conditions roughly two and a half years later on average than those who were never exposed to rationing.
During the rationing period, sugar allowances were capped at less than 40 grams per day for adults, and no added sugars were permitted for infants under 2, limits that align closely with today’s nutrition guidelines.
While the research can’t prove cause and effect, it strengthens the case for minimizing added sugars early in life. Experts say the findings underscore how nutrition in the first 1,000 days, from conception through age 2, can have long-term impacts on health.
“Our results underscore the cardiac benefit of early life policies focused on sugar rationing,” the authors concluded.
They add that further research could help clarify how genes, environment and diet interact to influence lifelong disease risk.
This research was funded by the Guangzhou Municipal Research Fund.