Adults who had a sweet tooth as kids have a higher risk of diabetes

Measuring Child’s Nutritional Aspects During World War II: The UK Biobank of Research on Nutrition in the Presence of Fatigue

The amount of sugar a child consumed after turning six months old seemed to have the biggest effect on the risk of developing a chronic disease later in life. People who were born with less access to sugar in the womb had a higher risk of diabetes and high blood pressure than people who were exposed to sugar in the womb.

There was a chance to look at the impact of nutrition in later life from the perspective of sugar rationing. Economic hardship during the Second World War forced the government to institute food rations, and limits on sugar were not lifted until 1953, years after the war ended. By that time, most other aspects of nutrition had normalized to meet the daily recommendations.

To find out, the researchers, Tadeja Gracner, an economist at the University of Southern California, and her colleagues, Claire Boone of McGill University and Paul J. Gertler of the University of California, Berkeley, turned to the UK Biobank. It contains genetic and medical information on half a million people, and steps have been taken to preserve contributors’ privacy. Using the data, the investigators analyzed the health of 60,183 people who were born from October 1951 through March 1956, and were age 51 to 60 when they were surveyed.

Economist Tadeja Gračner was pregnant with her first child and on doctor-ordered bed rest when she and her colleagues first arrived at these conclusions, which are published in Science on 31 October1. “I was like, ‘No, no, no. She says this is the last thing she needs. I was probably eating a chocolate.

The Big Change: The Effect of Sugar Rational Reduction on Pregnant Parents and Young Children, says US Consumer Product Analyst Valentina Graner

The results don’t mean pregnant people and parents of young children need to eliminate added sugars from their diet, says Graner. In the United States, pregnant women and lactating people have a tendency to eat three times the recommended amount of sugar. She says it’s all about moderation.

But data from tragedies such as famines and war can be difficult to interpret, says Valentina Duque, an economist at American University in Washington DC. “Often, these big, historical shocks affect so many things,” she says. “You don’t know what’s because of nutrition, or stress, or changes in income or household dynamics.”

Gračner first had the idea for the project years ago when she stumbled across an article about the lifting of the UK sugar rations and saw pictures of children flooding into bakeries when the restrictions ended.

The magnitude of the effect is surprisingly large, says Duque. She says that is is inescapable. “The big change here has to do with sugar.” Duque says that the results should add fuel to efforts to educate pregnant people about the importance of good nutrition.

Gračner agrees that education is crucial but doesn’t want anxious parents to overreact to her findings. She says that pregnant people have a lot to worry about. “If it’s just a little sugar here and there, everybody’s going to be fine.”