Sugar rationing during the first 1000 days and early onset cancer

 Runhua Tang1,† ∙ Haoran Wang2,† ∙ Huimin Hou1 ∙ … ∙ Shuhang Luo3 Send email to lsh971010@outlook.com ∙ Jianyong Liu4 Send email to liujianyong@cicams-sz.org.cn ∙ Ming Liu1 Send email to liumingbjh@126.com … 

ABSTRACT

Background

The “first 1000 days” of life is a critical window for metabolic programming, while the long-term oncological consequences of nutritional exposures during this period remain understudied.

Objectives

We aimed to evaluate whether restricted sugar intake in utero and during early childhood reduces risk of early onset cancer diagnosis and mortality in adulthood, utilizing a natural experiment.

Methods

We analyzed 63,819 United Kingdom Biobank participants born between October 1951 and March 1956, spanning the end of United Kingdom sugar rationing (September 1953). Leveraging a quasi-experimental birth cohort design, we compared participants exposed to sugar rationing in utero and during infancy with those unexposed. Early onset cancer incidence (≤50 y) and mortality were ascertained via integrated national Cancer Registry and hospital inpatient records. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models (including Gompertz distribution) were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs), with exploratory site-specific analyses.

Results

Among 63,819 participants (56.3% female), 40,397 were exposed to rationing and 23,422 were unexposed. Early life sugar restriction significantly reduced early onset cancer risk (HR: 0.66; 95% confidence interval: 0.53, 0.81; P < 0.001). A dose–response relationship was observed, with peak protection in individuals exposed for ≤24 mo postnatally. This protection was observed systemically across solid tumors, independent of specific cancer sites. Specificity was corroborated by null associations with negative controls (herpes zoster and cataract). No significant difference was found for cancer-specific mortality.

Conclusions

Restricting sugar intake during the first 1000 days is associated with a reduced risk of early onset cancer, extending the disease-free lifespan. The divergence between reduced incidence and unchanged mortality suggests early life metabolic environments primarily influence tumor latency rather than biological aggressiveness. These findings highlight the potential long-term public health implications of early life dietary guidelines against the rising burden of early onset cancer.

https://ajcn.nutrition.org/article/S0002-9165(26)00262-5/fulltext