A new study suggests that limiting sugar intake during pregnancy and a child's earliest years may be linked to a significantly lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and dementia decades later, adding to growing scientific interest in how early-life nutrition shapes long-term brain health.

The research, published in the journal npj Aging, found that babies exposed to less sugar before and after birth had lower risks of developing dementia, Alzheimer's disease, depression and anxiety later in life. The study's authors caution that the findings do not prove that reduced sugar consumption directly prevents these conditions, but they suggest that nutrition during what researchers call the first 1,000 days of life, spanning from pregnancy until roughly a child's second birthday, may leave lasting effects on the developing brain.

Researchers based in China analyzed health records from 60,394 participants in the UK Biobank, all born between 1951 and 1956. The study took advantage of a rare natural experiment created by strict sugar rationing in the United Kingdom during and after World War II. Under wartime rationing, adult sugar allowances were close to current dietary recommendations, and children under the age of two received no separate sugar allowance at all. When rationing ended in September 1953, average adult sugar consumption nearly doubled, climbing from roughly 41 to 80 grams per day, while children's candy consumption more than doubled as well.

That abrupt policy shift allowed researchers to compare health outcomes between people whose earliest years of life coincided with strict sugar rationing and those born shortly after........

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