THURSDAY, Nov. 7, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Sugar restriction during the first 1,000 days after conception lowers a child’s risk for later developing type 2 diabetes and hypertension, according to a study published online Oct. 31 in Science.

Tadeja Gracner, Ph.D., from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and colleagues examined the impact of sugar exposure within 1,000 days since conception on diabetes and hypertension. The analysis used a quasi-experimental design based on data from adults conceived just before and after the end of the United Kingdom sugar rationing in September 1953, which restricted sugar intake to levels within current dietary guidelines. Consumption nearly doubled immediately after rationing ended.

The researchers found that early-life rationing reduced diabetes and hypertension risk by about 35 and 20 percent, respectively. Similarly, rationing delayed disease onset by four and two years, respectively. With in-utero exposure restriction, protection was seen and increased with postnatal sugar restriction, especially after six months when solid foods likely began. One-third of the risk reduction was accounted for by in-utero sugar rationing.

“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,” coauthor Claire Boone, from McGill University in Montreal and the University of Chicago, said in a statement.

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