A new study examining sugar rationing during World War II has health lessons for today’s new and soon-to-be parents. It’s all about reducing your child’s sugar intake. Research published in science The study suggests that limiting sugar intake during pregnancy and the first two years of life has significant health benefits later in life. BBC. Doing so reduces a child’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes as an adult by 35% and reduces their risk of developing high blood pressure by 20%, the researchers say. CNN.
This insight came from researchers at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Berkeley, who examined data from the UK Biobank, which holds medical data on 500,000 people. as new york times According to the report, researchers looked at data on more than 60,000 people in the UK born between October 1951 and March 1956. In doing so, they were able to compare the health outcomes of people born during the sugar rationing period during World War II. (1950s), the average daily sugar consumption at the time was 41 grams (or 10 sugar cubes) per day, and those who became pregnant and gave birth after rationing consumed twice as much sugar per day. Ta.
“Sugar rationing created an interesting natural experiment,” said lead researcher Tadeja Gluckner, an economist at the University of Southern California. The researchers concluded that restricting carbohydrates from conception to age two (approximately 1,000 days) had unintended health benefits. The CNN article points out that an additional challenge for today’s parents is being aware of added or hidden sugar in baby foods and snacks for older children. (There’s more on sugar.)
