How much sugar expectant mothers eat during pregnancy affects the child’s long-term health. A current one Study shows: If children consumed a lot of sugar in the first 1000 days of life, i.e. from conception to the second year of life, they had a significantly higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus and high blood pressure.
The economists led by Tadeja Gracner from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles showed this in a “natural experiment”. They analyzed the health data of 60,000 Brits born between 1951 and 1956. In Britain, sugar was rationed after the Second World War until September 1953. When restrictions ended, sugar consumption practically doubled overnight. Every adult now ate an average of 81 grams a day – and this probably included pregnant women.
The researchers compared data from around 38,000 Britons who were born before the end of rationing with around 22,000 who were born after July 1954: those born after the end of rationing had a 35 percent and 20 percent higher risk, respectively. Suffering from type 2 diabetes mellitus and high blood pressure as an adult. They also became ill up to four years earlier than those born during sugar rationing.
According to the researchers, the mother’s sugar consumption during pregnancy accounted for a third of the increase in risk. How much sugar the children consumed through breastfeeding, formula or baby food also determined their long-term health.
“Increased sugar consumption leads to increased insulin production in the mother. “However, the increased circulating glucose level can also reach the developing baby directly through the placenta,” says Rachel Lippert, who heads the Neuronal Circuits junior group at the German Institute for Nutritional Research Potsdam-Rehbrücke (DIfE). We know from animal experiments that hyperglycemia, i.e. high blood sugar, leads to changes in the brain development of offspring. “These changes range from the hypothalamus – the part of the brain that regulates metabolism and eating behavior – to the reward system and on to effects on social and cognitive function.”
For example, it is possible that children have a higher preference for sweets throughout their lives.
The results confirm the current state of knowledge. Other studies have already shown a connection between a pregnant woman’s sugar consumption and the child’s risk of being overweight. Animal studies have also shown that a high-sugar diet during pregnancy disrupts the metabolism of the offspring in the long term and promotes insulin resistance and glucose intolerance.
