People who consumed less sugar while in the womb and during their first years of life may face a lower risk of developing dementia decades later, according to a new analysis of British health records. The findings, published in the medical journal Neurology, add to evidence that early nutrition can have long-term consequences for brain health.
The study drew on data from more than 64,000 people in the United Kingdom born before and after sugar rationing ended in 1953. Researchers compared people who were exposed to limited sugar before birth and through early childhood with people born after sugar again became widely available. Limited sugar exposure in the womb and through the first year of life was linked to a 21% lower risk of dementia. When sugar intake remained limited through age two, the associated risk reduction reached 23%.
The difference in timing was also notable. People with lower early-life sugar exposure developed dementia on average 2.6 years later than the comparison group.
« Our findings suggest that limiting sugar during the earliest stages of life may have lasting benefits for brain health, » study author Jiazhen Zheng of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology said in a statement.
The design of the study relies on a natural historical shift. Sugar rationing, introduced in Britain during the Second World War, meant that pregnant women and young children at the time had far less access to sugar than later generations. When the policy ended, sugar intake rose sharply across the population. That change allowed researchers to compare large groups of people whose early-life sugar exposure differed by birth period.
Outside experts responded with caution. Dariush Mozaffarian, director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, was not involved in the study. « I'm impressed with the researchers' creativity, pulling together information across decades to look at this question, but the findings are not convincing, » he said. He said the research raises an interesting question but cautioned against drawing firm conclusions. Many factors other than sugar could have differed between wartime and post-war births, including overall nutrition and calorie intake, he noted, making it difficult to know whether sugar alone explains the difference.
Even with those uncertainties, Mozaffarian said the advice for pregnant women remains unchanged. « Ultimately, we know from other research that women who are pregnant should consume the healthiest foods possible for both their own health and that of their baby, » he said. He recommended minimally processed foods such as fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, whole grains, fermented dairy products and fish, while limiting ultra-processed foods high in sugar, starch and salt.
The authors stressed that the study shows an association, not a direct cause-and-effect link. The analysis used a historical rationing policy as a proxy for individual sugar intake and could not rule out the influence of other differences between groups. As a result, the study does not prove that lowering sugar in early life prevents dementia. Instead, it points to early childhood as a potentially important window for long-term brain health.
