Revealed: The foods you shouldn’t give children in the first 1,000 days of life to prevent serious diseases, new study finds

Anyone who has lived through it will tell you how difficult it is to ration war.

But limiting sugar early in life may protect against diabetes and high blood pressure as a person ages, a study suggests.

Researchers have found that reducing sugar intake during the first thousand days of life – from conception – can protect against diabetes and high blood pressure in later years.

And it shows how the period up to the age of two is crucial for long-term health.

Early in life, children are exposed to large amounts of sugar through what their mothers eat during pregnancy, while breastfeeding, and in infant formula and baby food.

Research also shows that most babies and toddlers consume sweetened foods and drinks on a daily basis.

To study the long-term health effects of early sugar consumption, researchers at the University of Southern California took advantage of a natural experiment in Britain: the end of a decade-long rationing of sugar and sweets after World War II in 1953.

During rationing, adults were typically given 8 oz (0.5 lbs) of sugar and 12 oz (0.75 lbs) of sweets every four weeks.

The sugar exemption was similar to current UK dietary guidelines, including those for pregnant women and young children.

Experts tracked the health of people in Britain before and after rationing to investigate how access to sugar affected disease risk.

However, the end of rationing led to an immediate, almost doubled increase in sugar consumption almost overnight.

The team examined health data from people who spent the first thousand days after conception, either during the rationing years or after they ended.

Analysis found that exposure to sugar rationing early in life had long-term health benefits.

According to the findings, people’s risk of developing diabetes and high blood pressure dropped by about 35 percent and 20 percent by the time they were in their 50s and 60s, respectively.

The onset of these diseases was also delayed by four years for diabetes and by two years for high blood pressure for those who lived during the ‘rationing years’.

Writing in the journal Science, the researchers said: ‘For an average adult, daily sugar consumption rose sharply from 41 grams in 1953 to about 80 grams in 1954, and this similarly high level persisted for several years.

‘These data apply to adults, but other data has shown that children’s sugar intake more than doubled after rationing and their oral health also deteriorated.’

Commenting on the research, Dr Hilda Mulrooney, Reader in Nutrition and Health at London Metropolitan University, said: ‘This is a very interesting and timely article, given the currently high sugar intake in the UK population and the prevalence of chronic diseases, including type 2. diabetes and high blood pressure.

People in the US drink an average of almost five and a half sugary drinks per week, while people in Britain drink about four and a half. This includes carbonated cola, lemonade, energy drinks and fruit-flavored drinks, based on the latest available data for 2018 (shown in graph).

‘The potential of nutrition in utero to influence long-term health risks has long been recognized, and there are a number of plausible mechanisms to explain how these might occur.

‘In this study, the authors used data from what could be considered a natural experiment: rationing in response to World War II.

‘Comparing individuals who were and were not exposed to sugar rationing in utero and in early childhood, a significant effect was seen.

‘Early childhood was especially important; only a third of the increase in the risk of both type 2 diabetes and hypertension was explained by in utero exposure. This highlights the potential of early childhood nutrition as a risk factor for chronic diseases.

‘Given the high sugar content in foods and drinks aimed at toddlers and young children, this is concerning.’

Earlier this year, a report warned that British children face a lifetime of poor health as junk food diets have stunted their growth and fueled a rise in obesity and type 2 diabetes.

The Food Foundation says children are growing up in an environment that makes feeding children healthy “an almost impossibly difficult challenge.”

It blames the ‘aggressive promotion’ of foods high in fat, sugar and salt and ‘shocking’ poverty levels, putting healthier alternatives out of reach for some families.