A new study has found restricting sugar consumption in the firs 1000 days after conception can prevent or delay high blood pressure and diabetes when the child grows up. Scientists have been looking at the effects of rationing during and after World War 2 when sugar was severely restricted.
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00:00A very big study, 60,000 people, looking at something called the UK Biobank, where British
00:07people have volunteered kindly to have their health, well-being, sometimes their genes
00:12measured so that you can actually track factors that influence their health and well-being.
00:17And the people go back a long way.
00:19Now, during the war and after, I'm talking about World War II, there was rationing in
00:24Britain which severely restricted sugar.
00:26Now, this was not starvation.
00:29This was actually—the food rationing was designed to give you an adequate diet for
00:34good nutrition.
00:35And in fact, health went up paradoxically during World War II.
00:38There are plenty of studies showing that.
00:40But this was specifically looking at sugar restriction.
00:44And sugar restriction was lifted in September 1953.
00:49And what they did was they looked at babies that were born where the mothers had been
00:54pregnant during rationing and the time thereafter, and babies who were conceived after rationing
01:04and for 1,000 days thereafter, to compare the two when these people were between 50
01:10and late 60s.
01:13And what it showed was that—and rationing meant about eight teaspoons of sugar a day.
01:21And what happened after rationing was sugar consumption doubled almost overnight.
01:25So, it was a dramatic difference.
01:27And basically, people who are—their mothers had been pregnant during rationing, and they
01:33had been babies during rationing, or there had been babies during rationing, those people
01:38had a 35 percent lower risk of diabetes when they were adults and a 20 percent lower risk
01:44of high blood pressure.
01:45And if they were going to develop those conditions, they were delayed in their life by maybe two
01:49to four years.
01:50So, it was quite a dramatic difference between the two groups.
01:55The biggest effect was when the baby was about six months during sugar rationing and—because
02:02when the sugar rationing affected them when they were going on to solids.
02:07If they were still under rationing at that point, that had the biggest effect on their
02:12subsequent risk of diabetes and high blood pressure.
02:16But nonetheless, there was an effect—maybe about a third of the effect—during pregnancy.
02:21So when the mother was pregnant with that child, if she was experiencing sugar restriction,
02:26the child also had a lower risk of diabetes and high blood pressure.
02:30So it was really dramatic.