Exposure to sugar rationing in the first 1000 days of life protected against chronic disease

We examined the impact of exposure to sugar restrictions within 1000 days after conception on type 2 diabetes and hypertension, leveraging quasi-experimental variation from the end of the United Kingdom’s sugar rationing in September 1953. Rationing restricted sugar intake to levels within current dietary guidelines, and consumption nearly doubled immediately after rationing ended. Using an event study design with UK Biobank data comparing adults conceived just before or after rationing ended, we found that early-life rationing reduced type 2 diabetes and hypertension risk by about 35 and 20% and delayed disease onset by 4 and 2 years, respectively. Protection was evident with in utero exposure and increased with postnatal sugar restriction, especially after 6 months, when eating of solid foods likely began. In utero sugar rationing alone accounted for about one-third of the risk reduction.

Methods

This research has been conducted using the UK Biobank Resources under Application Number 58599. Data were made available to us under a material transfer agreement with RAND, USC, UC Berkeley, and U of Chicago. Quarterly food consumption, price and annual sugar and sweet sales data were collected manually from the National Food Survey reports (25) and article (23) and are available here in .dta format.