Limiting sugar early in life may reduce health risks in adulthood

Limit the quantity sugar given to infants during the first 1000 days of life, beginning in pregnancy.may protect against chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension in adulthood. This is the conclusion of a study published yesterday in the prestigious journal Science. Its authors used data from more than 60,000 people following sugar rationing introduced in the United Kingdom after the Second World War.

“Using an event study design with UK Biobank data, comparing adults conceived just before or after the end of rationing, we found that early rationing reduced the risk of diabetes and hypertension by around 35% and 20% respectively, and delayed onset by 4 and 2 years,” the summary of the study clarifies.

Its first author, Tadeya Gratznerresearcher Center for Economic and Social Research (San Francisco, USA) have already published another study in 2022, which concluded that excessive sugar consumption early in life leads to an increased prevalence of chronic inflammation, diabetes, high cholesterol and arthritis. It has also reduced the opportunity to obtain higher education, skilled employment, and accumulate above-average wealth.

The study, published by the journal Science, examined whether the offspring of mothers who suffered from sugar restrictions in the post-World War II period had a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes and hypertension, compared with offspring born after this restrictive period. explained at the Science Media Center (SMC) Jesus Francisco Garcia Gavilanresearcher CIBERobn. “The results show that those exposed to low levels of sugar in the early years of life had a much lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes and hypertension compared to those born after rationing,” says this expert.

According to Garcia Gavilan, the results of the study “support clinical practice dietary recommendations “who seek to avoid or reduce consumption of simple sugars during pregnancy and delay their consumption as much as possible in early childhood to maintain health in adulthood.”

And he points out a limitation: the study only looks at people born in the United Kingdom between 1951 and 1956, “where the type and availability of ultra-processed foods may be very different from today,” he warns.

Rafael Urialde de Andresprofessor at the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of San Pablo CEU, recalls that, although with a very large sample size, it is an observational study with “implicit limitations and limitations of this methodology compared to what would be a clinical trial.” . ” “

“Although there is no proven direct cause-and-effect relationship between restricting sugar in the first 1000 days and reducing the prevalence of diabetes and hypertension, it has been observed that this restriction is not only in added sugar but also in sugar-free (present in fruit) juice, e.g. ). It has a positive effect on reducing overweight and obesity in children and adolescents and the subsequent appearance of certain pathologies. associated with both overweight and obesity,” says Urrialde de Andres, board member Spanish Nutrition Society. “Today’s recommendations Minimize added sugars and free sugar intake in infants and young children (zero to three years of life),” he recalls.

This observational study, the expert adds, “provides more evidence on the importance of lowering sugar levels among children, especially those aged zero to three years. During this period of life, the consumption of any type of free sugar should be reduced in order to reduce the occurrence of certain physiological or pathological situations. It is necessary to take into account not only the sugar added to foods, but also the composition. free sugars. That is, what is provided by certain foods: for example, in the case of fruits and juices, it is better to eat fruits because their digestion is slower, as is their absorption, which implies a lower glycemic index,” he said. concludes.

Reference Study: Grakner etc.“Exposure to sugar rationing in the first 1000 days of life protects against chronic disease.”

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