A new study suggests that keeping children off sugar in their first two years reduces lifelong risks of diabetes and high blood pressure.
Limiting sugar intake in early childhood can decrease the risk of type 2 diabetes by 35% and high blood pressure by 20%, having lasting health benefits even if sugar consumption increases later. Read more about the latest findings.
Children who are kept off sugar during their first two years appear to have a reduced risk of diabetes and high blood pressure throughout their lives, says a new study.
According to the findings published on Thursday in Science, cutting sugar in the first 1,000 days of a child’s diet acts as a protective effect throughout their lives, even if children start to consume more sugar after age two.
The study revealed that limiting sugar in early childhood cuts the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 35%, and high blood pressure by 20%.
The findings in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics in 2020 revealed that, despite guidance to limit added sugars for children, about 85% of U.S. children consume added sugars daily.
This means that infants consume added sugars in the form of sweetened yogurts, and baby foods, while toddlers end up consuming candy, pastries, and fruit drinks.
Processed sugar also has proven to have an in-utero impact. Expecting mothers consuming processed sugars can be harmful to children even while they are still fetuses in utero.
According to WHO, in both adults and children, the intake of free sugars should be reduced to less than 10% of total energy intake. A further reduction to below 5% of total energy intake would provide additional health benefits.
Though most children exceed the WHO’s recommendations of sugar intake, the consequences from it are unclear.
In 2021, a Canadian study stated that there is no link between sugar intake and children’s waistlines.
However, these findings did not address the potential long-term effects of sugar consumption on the metabolism of children.
To study the long-term impacts, the researchers took advantage of a natural experiment, back in the United Kingdom after World War II. A few months post the war, the UK government began rationing food.
The rationing included limiting adults to around 40 grams of sugar per day. In 1953, when the rationing concluded, average sugar consumption in the UK spiked from 40 grams to 80 grams.
The findings were striking. Children who rationed sugar during their first 1,000 days had reduced diabetes risk by 35% and hypertension risk by 20%.
It also delayed the onset of diabetes by four years and hypertension by two years, compared to the others who consumed added sugars.
Times Of India
