The ingredient you should reduce in your child’s diet to boost their adult heart health
Limiting sugar in kids’ diets can be good for their hearts
- Research indicates that restricting sugar intake during the first two years of life and in maternal pregnancy leads to lasting benefits for heart health in adulthood.
- A study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) examined data from 63,433 individuals in the UK Biobank, comparing those exposed to wartime sugar rationing (1940-1953) with those who were not.
- People who experienced sugar restriction during pregnancy and their first two years of life had a 20 per cent to 31 per cent lower risk of various heart conditions, including heart disease, heart attack, heart failure, stroke, and cardiovascular death.
- Longer exposure to sugar rationing was associated with progressively lower heart risks, partly due to less diabetes and lower blood pressure, and up to two-and-a-half years more time without heart problems.
- Experts concluded that the first 1,000 days after conception represent a critical window where nutrition significantly influences lifelong cardiometabolic risk.