A new observational health study using UK Biobank data suggests a potential link between sugar intake and the development of dementia. Jane Kirby reports
LIMITING sugar before the age of two is linked to a lower risk of dementia later in life, research suggests.
A study based on almost 65,000 people from the UK found that sugar rationing may be linked to more than a fifth lower chance of dementia.
Experts suggested exposure to sugar in the womb and early life may affect how the baby receives nutrients as well as metabolic processes.
The new study used UK Biobank data, which includes people exposed to sugar rationing as a result of the Second World War.
In 1940, the British government began rationing certain foods, including sugar, and this lasted until 1953.
Previous studies on the same group found they were less likely to suffer conditions such as heart attack, heart failure and stroke if they had little sugar in early childhood and if their mothers had little sugar in pregnancy. In the latest research, published in the journal Neurology, experts looked at 64,737 people who were born before and after sugar rationing in the UK.
They found people who experienced sugar rationing before birth and up to age one had a 21% lower risk of dementia compared with people born after sugar rationing.
