People exposed to less sugar during the first 1,000 days of life had a lower risk of developing anxiety decades later, according to new research, a finding that experts say highlights the importance of early nutrition for brain development, while stopping short of proving sugar is a direct cause of mental health problems. To investigate the long-term effects of sugar consumption, a team analyzed data from individuals spanning a period when post-World War II sugar rationing in Britain was still in force and then gradually phased out. "This study is compelling because it examines a real historical event," Dr.
Ritu Goel, a double board-certified child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist and founder of MindClaire, told Newsweek. "Post-war sugar rationing in the U.K. created a natural experiment that could not be ethically designed today. "The signal deserves serious consideration: lower sugar intake early in life was associated with reduced anxiety risk decades later, along with measurable differences in brain structure." Goel, however, cautioned that the findings do not establish a direct causal relationship.
"That said, it's not proof that sugar causes anxiety," she added. "Rationing changed much more than sugar; families' overall diets changed as well. "People born a few years apart also grew up in different social and economic conditions, so those factors are hard to tease out." The new study, published in Translational Psychiatry and led by researchers at the University of Surrey in England, examined how exposure to sugar during pregnancy and the first two years of life influences mental health, dietary behavior, brain development and cognitive health in adulthood.
To investigate the long-term effects of sugar consumption, the team analyzed data from more than 45,000 U.K. Biobank participants born between 1951 and 1956. Participants were divided into groups based on whether they experienced sugar rationing while in the womb and for up to six, 12, 18 or 24 months after birth, or only during pregnancy.
Researchers also included a control group of similarly aged participants born when rationing was no longer in place, as well as a group born in Ireland. The findings showed that the risk of developing anxiety in adulthood was lowest among people who had the least exposure to sugar during pregnancy and the first two years of life. Women who were not exposed to rationing, or experienced it for only a short period, were particularly more likely to develop anxiety later in life.
Researchers also identified an association between early sugar exposure and depression, although this became less significant after statistical adjustments were made. The researchers also found evidence to suggest that early sugar exposure may have lasting effects on the brain. Brain imaging analysis revealed significant differences across rationing groups.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
