Eating less of common ingredient early in life may slash cancer risk decades later

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Limiting sugar consumption during the first 1,000 days of life, from conception through a child’s second birthday, may result in slower biological aging and alower risk of cancerup to five decades later.

A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences investigated how early-life sugar intake influences health in adulthood, examining data from over 64,000 participants in the UK Biobank born between 1951 and 1956.

The researchers leveraged a natural experiment from post-war Britain, when sugar rationing ended in September 1953.

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After rationing ended, average daily sugar consumption across the U.K.nearly doubled — from about 41 grams to 80 grams — while consumption of othermajor foodsremained stable, according to historical National Food Survey data cited in the study.

People exposed to sugar rationing during their first 1,000 days of life were compared to those who were conceived after the policy ended.Researchers then examined cancer outcomes recorded about five decades later.

A woman feeds an ice-cream cone to a child.

Researchers examined over 64,000 UK Biobank participants by leveraging the abrupt end of British sugar rationing in September 1953, which caused adult sugar intake to nearly double while other foods remained stable.(iStock)

They found that people who spent more of their early lives under sugar rationing had lower rates of several cancers in adulthood, including liver, rectal, lung, prostate andbreast cancers.

People exposed to early sugar limits also had longer leukocyte telomeres — protective caps on chromosomes that tend to shorten with age — equivalent to about two fewer years ofbiological aging.They also had lower levels of Granzyme B, a protein associated with long-term immune activation and inflammation.

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The study’s authors identified two key pathways that could explain these long-term benefits: a biological imprint and a persistent behavioral habit.

Five decades after rationing ended, adults who spent their earliest days under sugar restrictions were still consuming less sugar and eatinghealthier, more varied diets.

Consuming less sugar during pregnancy and the first years of life may lower the risk of developing cancer decades later, the study suggests.(iStock)

Experts said the findings add to ongoing research into howearly dietmay influence long-term health, though further research is needed to confirm the connection.

“What surprised me most was how persistent the effects were,�

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“We might expect childhood diet to matter for health, but differences in sugar exposure during just the first 1,000 days were still reflected in people’s diets andbiological markersroughly five decades later.”

“This suggests that early life may be an especially important period not only for biological development, but also for establishing long-lasting food preferences.”

Dr.Brian Slomovitz, deputy director of the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, described the research as an “excellent hypothesis-generating study.”

“Sugar consumption is something that we have been worrying about … most importantly, inflammation, and how inflammation can lead tosome cancers,�

High sugar intake has been linked to metabolic disruption, insulin resistance and chronic inflammation, which may contribute to disease risk, according to Dr.

Siegel said the lower cancer rates were consistent with the possibility that less early sugar exposure and healthier later-life diets played a role.

However, outside oncologists note that natural experiments from decades past come with inherent research limitations.

“We’re talking about the 1950s, so clearly there are some biases in data collection,” Slomovitz noted.“Secondly, the numbers are very, very, very low.Of all the cancers, most of them had [fewer] than 100 cases … to show a 70% decrease, I think is probably an ambitious conclusion.”

Individuals with longer early-life exposure to sugar rationing experienced reduced adult incidence rates for liver, rectal, lung, prostate and breast cancers.(iStock)

The doctor also pointed out that while obesity-driven cancers align with metabolic pathways, other findings in the paper — such as reduced lung cancerrisk — are traditionally tied to external factors like smoking rather than dietary sugar.

The researchers noted that, as a natural experiment rather than a randomized trial, the study could not rule out all other postwar factors.

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Additionally, the UK Biobank is not fully representative of the broader British population, and the researchers could not determine how much of the effect reflected early biological changes versus healthier diets maintained in adulthood.

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Zhang cautioned against overinterpreting the findings as a reason for extreme dietary measures.

“I would not interpret our study as saying that parents should eliminate sugar completely,” he said.“Rather, our findings support existing recommendations to limit added sugar, particularly duringpregnancyand early childhood.”

Khloe Quill is a

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