🔶 Nutrition Under Age Two Impacts Health Seventy Years Later

Does the amount of sugar you consumed before your second birthday affect your health in the decades that follow your life? A new study’s answer to this question is yes. People who were exposed to less sugar consumption in the first few years of life developed far fewer cases of multiple types of cancer at older ages, and they also showed signs of slower biological aging. They even continued to consume less sugar during adulthood and, overall, had a healthier diet.

After World War II, sugar in the United Kingdom was rationed for several years. But in September 1953, rationing ended and people began consuming much more sugar—so much so that intake increased by nearly twofold. This meant that children who were born only a few months apart had very different exposure to sugar, both in the womb and in early childhood.