A new research comes to shed light on the association of children’s nutrition, with cardiac problems during adulthood, with evidence showing that its limitation sugar may lead to a lower risk of their occurrence.
According to the study published in the journal The BMJ, limited sugar intake during the first years of a child’s life is linked to a lower risk of several heart problems in adulthood, including heart attack, heart failure and stroke.
The important first 1000 days of life
Studies have shown that the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, from conception to about age two, is a time when diet can have long-term health effects, and leading health organizations recommend avoiding sugary drinks and highly processed foods as babies enter solid foods.
Britain’s sugar bill and survey data
In this particular study, the researchers used data from 63,433 participants in the UK Biobank database, born between October 1951 and March 1956 in the United Kingdom, without a history of heart disease.
It was a pivotal point in this time period the abolition of sugar rationing in Britain in 1953;an austerity measure imposed during World War II. As the researchers note, during the sugar rationing period, the sugar allowance for everyone was limited to less than 40 grams per day, while no added sugars were allowed for infants under two years of age; restrictions consistent with modern dietary recommendations.
40,063 participants had experienced restrictions on sugar intake, while 23,370 had not. An external control group of non-UK-born adults who had not experienced sugar restriction was also assessed to make the comparisons more reliable.
Results show that greater sugar restriction was assocd with progressively lower cardiovascular risks in adulthood, in part due to a reduced risk of diabetes and high blood pressure.
Specifically, those who experienced sugar restriction in the first years of their lives had 20% reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, 25% reduced risk of heart attack, 26% heart failure, 24% atrial fibrillation, 31% stroke and 27% cardiovascular death. The greatest protection was seen in people whose sugar intake was restricted from the time of the mother’s pregnancy until about age two.
It is noted that this is an observational study, so no definitive conclusions about cause and effect can be made, and the authors acknowledge several limitations, such as the lack of detailed individual dietary data. However, they emphasize that it is a large and well-designed study that allowed them to explore the potential pathways linking sugar restriction to cardiovascular outcomes.