American and Canadian scientists used the event analysis method and found that limiting sugar consumption in the first thousand days after conception significantly reduces the risk of developing serious chronic diseases later in life. The report on the work was published in the journal Science.
During the Second World War, rationing of various foodstuffs was introduced in Great Britain. In relation to sugar and sweets, it remained in place until 1953. The restrictions at that time were comparable to modern dietary recommendations for sugar consumption: less than 40 grams per day for adults, less than 15 grams for children, and no sugar at all in the diet of children under two. After the abolition of coupons on sugar and sweets, its consumption by the average adult almost immediately doubled: from 41 grams per day in the first quarter of 1953 to 80 grams per day in the third quarter of 1954; similar trends were observed in children. Thus, the country had a generation that was virtually deprived of sugar in its diet in early childhood, including its limited consumption by the mother during pregnancy and breastfeeding.
Tadeja Gracner of the University of Southern California and colleagues took advantage of this natural quasi-experiment. They analyzed data from more than 60,000 British adults born between October 1951 and March 1956 in the UK BioBank repository, who were aged 51–66 at the time of the survey. More than 38,000 of them were conceived 1,000 or more days before October 1953 and were included in the sugar rationing cohort; the remaining 22,000-plus were born later and were considered unexposed. The sex and ethnic composition of the cohorts, as well as family history of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and the estimated genetic risk of obesity were comparable.
By the time of inclusion, almost 4,000 participants had diabetes mellitus, and more than 19,600 had arterial hypertension. With age, the risk of these diseases increased in both cohorts, but in those faced with rationing, they developed less often and at a later age. In particular, the hazard ratio (HR) for the development of diabetes mellitus in those affected by rationing only in the prenatal period, and in the prenatal period plus the first one or two years of life compared to unaffected ones was 0.87; 0.75 and 0.64, and it occurred in the case of development 1.46; 2.80 and 4.17 years later. For arterial hypertension, these indicators were HR 0.92; 0.85 and 0.81 and 0.53; 1.47 and 2.12 years, respectively (all indicators are statistically significant, for most p < 0.001). Thus, limiting sugar consumption during pregnancy and breastfeeding, as well as in the first two years of a child's life, can serve as an effective method for preventing the development of diabetes and arterial hypertension in later life, the authors of the work conclude. Previously, Chinese researchers showed statistically that drinking drinks with sugar or artificial sweeteners is associated with an increased risk of atrial fibrillation, and their French colleagues linked drinking drinks with added sugar and fruit juices with an increased likelihood of developing cancer. At the same time, an analysis of a prospective cohort of Danes did not reveal an increased risk of diabetes and death when adding sugar to tea or coffee.