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With the arrival of the festive season, Halloween, and holiday celebrations, children often indulge in sugary treats, including sweets and candies.
However, new research suggests that it is recommended to keep a close eye on young children’s sugar intake.
A study published Friday in the journal
Science reveals that reducing sugar in a child’s first 1,000 days – from conception through to age 2 – could help lower their risk of chronic conditions in adulthood.
Led by Tadeja Gracner, senior economist at the Centre for Economics and Social Research at the University of Southern California, the study indicates that children with limited sugar intake in early life had up to 35 per cent reduced risk of type 2 diabetes and nearly 20 per cent lower risk of hypertension as adults.
While mothers consuming minimal sugar during pregnancy already reduced these risks, continuing to limit sugar after birth strengthened the benefits, according to the research.
The study used a “natural experiment” that occurred as post-war Britain ended food rationing.
When sugar rationing was lifted in September 1953, daily sugar intake in the UK population surged from about 41g (10 sugar cubes) to 80g (20 sugar cubes), providing a unique basis for examining sugar’s long-term health effects.
What does the analysis suggest?
Scientists analysing data from the UK BioBank examined 60,000 people born between 1951 and 1956, whose health has been monitored over decades. This approach provided information into the health of people born during sugar rationing and those born shortly after, revealing differences in sugar exposure during their first 1,000 days.
Lead researcher Tadeja Gracner said, “Sugar rationing created an interesting natural experiment.”
The study found that babies conceived or born during rationing had a 30 per cent lower risk of obesity, with a sharper rise in type 2 diabetes and hypertension among those conceived after rationing ended.
While the risk of diabetes and hypertension increased with age, it rose more quickly among those exposed to higher sugar levels from birth.
The research showed that, on average, type 2 diabetes onset was delayed by four years and high blood pressure by two years for those who experienced early sugar restrictions. Babies conceived during rationing had a 35 per cent lower risk of diabetes and a 20 per cent lower risk of high blood pressure. A low-sugar maternal diet during pregnancy contributed to a third of the health benefits; however, the best outcomes appeared when rationing covered both pregnancy and early childhood.
Dr Mark Corkins, chief of paediatric gastroenterology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, who was not involved in the study, told CNN, “We are designed to like sweet things from the moment of birth.”
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Gracner said that early sugar exposure may affect metabolism and influence how the body responds to food over a lifetime. “Maternal diets high in sugar have been linked to a higher risk of obesity and metabolic disorders in children, possibly through factors like fetal programming,” she described, adding that early sugar exposure may promote a lifelong preference for sweet foods.
She told BBC, “Studies show that – while most humans like sweet – significant sugar exposure in early life can strengthen this preference.”
Dr Corkins also discussed how sugar impacts metabolism: “When you consume more sugar, it changes the way your metabolism works, and you start depositing and saving it. We’re designed to save food for periods of famine. We don’t have periods of famine anymore, so now we store it as fat.”
He pointed out that sugar consumption in the US remains “extremely high.”
Excessive sugar intake also leads to dental issues and associated health impacts, ThePrint reported.
Notably, the study also indicates that pregnant and lactating women in the US consume more than triple the recommended amount of added sugar, averaging over 80 grams daily. The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has also warned that many young children are consuming sugary drinks regularly while falling short of recommended fruit and vegetable intake.
Gracner admitted that reducing sugar can be challenging. She said, “Avoiding sugar is far from easy as it is everywhere – even in baby and toddler foods.”
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How to reduce sugar consumption
Several campaign groups in the UK have raised concerns that many foods marketed towards parents of weaning-age babies contain excessive sugar. To encourage toddlers to develop a balanced taste preference, experts have advised parents to offer less sweet vegetables like broccoli or spinach early on, BBC reported.
Dr Corkins noted that parents’ eating habits heavily influence their children’s. “The number one influence is parents, They see what their parents eat, and kids tend to eat like their parents. If you want your child to have better habits, then you need to model those habits.”
Other recommended strategies include replacing sugary drinks with healthier options or eliminating them entirely, and avoiding stocking sugary snacks and drinks at home. Practising moderation with sugary foods is also important.
Is the case similar in India?
In India, concerns over added sugars in baby foods came to the forefront in April after an investigation by Public Eye, a Swiss NGO, and the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) exposed that
Nestle includes added sugar in its powdered baby food in low- and middle-income countries, including India, but not in wealthier nations.
According to the investigation, Nestle’s popular Cerelac baby cereals – which generated over $250 million in sales in India in 2022 – contain nearly three grammes of added sugar per serving on average. Nestle responded in April, stating that Cerelac’s sugar content had been reduced by 30 per cent over the past five years.
In May, India’s top nutrition authority, the Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR-NIN), updated its guidelines to discourage sugar for children under two years old.
Speaking to ThePrint, a senior ICMR-NIN scientist said, “The latest finding on the later impact of sugar consumption in infancy is very important and reaffirms our stand on restricting sugar intake for babies and toddlers.”
He added, “The findings should give out a strong signal to food policymakers to restrict sugar in packaged foods in order to bring down the burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs).”
In India, dietary factors directly contribute to around 56.4 per cent of the total disease burden, according to ICMR-NIN’s latest dietary guidelines.