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Study Suggests Cutting Sugar Before Age 2 Could Lower Heart Disease Risk
- February 24, 2026
- I. Edwards HealthDay Reporter
Cookies, cupcakes, fruit snacks, juice boxes, oh my! These sweet treats are often part of childhood.
But when it comes to babies and toddlers, new research suggests less sugar may be better for the heart later on.
Researchers found that people whose sugar intake was restricted before birth and during the first two years of life were less likely to develop serious heart problems as adults, including heart attack, heart failure and stroke.
The study, published recently in The BMJ, looked at people born around the time the United Kingdom ended sugar rationing in 1953, a rare opportunity to study the long-term effects of early sugar intake.
Historically, sugar was tightly rationed in the U.K. That changed in September 1953 when sugar limits were lifted.
A team led by Jiazhen Zheng, a doctoral student at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in Guangzhou, China, conducted the study.
Researchers used this shift as a natural experiment, comparing folks born before and after rationing ended.
The study included 63,433 adults born between October 1951 and March 1956. Their average age was 55, and none had heart disease at the start of the study.
40,063 people were exposed to sugar rationing early in life.
23,370 people were not.
The researchers tracked medical records to see who later developed heart disease, including heart attacks, heart failure, irregular heartbeat, stroke and deaths related to heart problems.
Compared with people who were never exposed to rationing, risk among the rationing group dropped:
20% for heart disease overall
25% for heart attack
26% for heart failure
24% for irregular heartbeat
31% for stroke
27% for dying from heart disease
Heart problems among those in the rationing group also appeared later in life. In some cases, the start of heart disease was delayed by up to 2.5 years.
Researchers say part of the benefit may owe to lower rates of diabetes and high blood pressure, both major risk factors for heart disease.
Health experts have long said the first 1,000 days of life, from conception through age 2, are critical for long-term health.
During the rationing period, daily sugar intake was capped at less than 40 grams per day, and infants under age 2 were not allowed any added sugar.
Those limits closely match today’s nutrition advice, which recommends avoiding sugary drinks and processed foods for babies and toddlers.
Because this was an observational study, it cannot prove that lower sugar intake directly caused better heart health, only that there is an association. The researchers also did not have detailed records of individual diets.
Still, they say the findings are strong.
“Our results underscore the cardiac benefit of early life policies focused on sugar rationing,” the authors wrote.
"Further studies should investigate individual level dietary exposures and consider the interplay between genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors to develop more personalized prevention strategies," they added.
More information
National Institutes of Health has more on the impact of early-life sugar on child health.
SOURCE: BMJ Group, news release, Feb. 23, 2026
