War-era sugar rationing boosted health of UK people conceived in 1940s

Sugar rationing during and after the Second World War appears to have improved the health of people who became pregnant in Britain at the time, reducing their risk of type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure decades later. This suggests that eating less sugar early in life may promote better health in adulthood.

There had been previous exposure to high-sugar diets in utero. Linked to increased risk of obesityThis is known to increase the risk of type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. However, whether this is a cause-and-effect relationship is unclear, and investigation of such issues has been hampered by the fact that it would be difficult, or even unethical, for researchers to force people to follow a specific diet.

But that’s not the case with wartime governments, which is why Tadea Glackner She and her colleagues at the University of Southern California decided to use a situation from World War II to conduct a natural diet experiment. In January 1940, a few months after the war broke out, the British government introduced food rationing. These include limiting sugar intake to around 40 grams per day for adults. More than a decade later, in September 1953, rationing ended and sugar consumption rapidly increased to about twice as much.

Gracner’s team analyzed the health records of more than 38,000 people surveyed between 2006 and 2019 as part of the UK Biobank project. All were aged between 51 and 66 at the time of the survey and were conceived in the years before rationing ended, meaning they had limited sugar intake in the womb and early in life. The researchers also looked at the same data on 22,000 people who became pregnant about a year after rationing ended. The two groups had a similar composition in terms of gender and race and had similar family histories of diabetes and therefore could be compared.

In both groups, more than 3900 people were diagnosed with diabetes and 19,600 with high blood pressure, but the prevalence of both conditions was much lower for children conceived during rationing . Members of this group were 35% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes by their 60s, and those who did develop the disease were on average four years later than those who became pregnant after rationing ended. For hypertension, those on rationing were 20% less likely to develop the disease by their 60s, with onset again delayed by an average of two years.

Crucially, while rationing brought about many changes in the British diet, cutting back on sugar seemed to make a big difference. Despite changes in food availability, the average diet during the rationing period was similar in content to other food types, such as fats, meats, dairy products, grains, and fruits. One explanation could be that increased early exposure to sugar can lead to a lifelong preference for sweet foods, Glackner said. This may also result in epigenetic changes This reduces people’s ability to control blood sugar levels, increasing their risk of type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, she said.

Alternatively, generally lower calorie consumption due to eating less sugar could explain the improved health of women who became pregnant during rationing, said Scott Montgomery A study from Sweden’s Örebro University shows that reducing sugar intake is not important in itself. People ate about 100 fewer calories a day during the rationing period, and people who conceived during the rationing period had a 30% lower risk of obesity than those who conceived later, suggesting that the reduction in calories played a role. “It might not necessarily be exposure to high sugar levels, it could be something else,” Montgomery said.

Anyway, though Recommended dietary guidelines for sugar intake in the UK I ate about the same amount today as during the ration, but the actual consumption was much higher. Montgomery said the results showed clear benefits to reducing intake. “People should reduce their sugar intake to recommended levels.”