Early Sugar Exposure Linked to Adult Anxiety Risk
Key Developments:
- Early sugar restriction linked to lower adult anxiety risk
- Study analysed 46,448 people born in post-war Britain
- Brain differences were also observed in several regions
(EuroNews) — September 25, 2026: Exposure to sugar during the first 1,000 days of life may be associated with mental health outcomes later in adulthood, including anxiety, according to a study published in Translational Psychiatry.
Researchers from the University of Surrey examined UK Biobank data involving 46,448 people born between October 1951 and March 1956. The participants lived through periods when sugar was rationed in Britain, allowing researchers to compare people exposed to different durations of sugar restrictions during pregnancy and early childhood.
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Britain maintained wartime and post-war food rationing from 1940 to 1953, with adult sugar allowances restricted to roughly 40 grams a day during the period examined.
The study found that people exposed to the longest period of sugar rationing — from pregnancy through the first two years of life — had a lower hazard of developing anxiety in adulthood compared with those who were not exposed to rationing. For the longest-exposed group, the reported hazard of anxiety was about 33% lower.
The researchers also found that those exposed to longer periods of rationing generally developed anxiety later in life. The median recorded age of anxiety diagnosis was around 61 to 62 years in some of the longest-exposed groups, compared with about 56 years in the main non-rationed comparison group.
The findings do not establish that sugar directly causes anxiety. Rather, the researchers identified an association between the early-life nutritional environment and mental health outcomes decades later.
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A new study of more than 46,000 UK adults suggests sugar exposure in early life may impact mental health in adulthood, as well as food preferences and brain development. CREDIT: Health Day.
“Knowing the full impact that sugar can have on our physical and mental health, across our lifespan, could help inform public health policy and reshape our diets,” said Hana Navratilova, who led the study.
The study also examined dietary preferences and brain structure. Participants exposed to the longest period of rationing reported a lower preference for sweet foods. MRI data from nearly 6,000 participants further showed differences in grey matter volume across several brain regions, with 11 regions highlighted in more detailed comparisons.
The researchers noted that adult sugar consumption was broadly similar across the rationing groups, suggesting that differences in later-life sugar intake did not fully explain the anxiety association. Sensitivity analyses also found that the anxiety finding remained after accounting for later-life sugar consumption, although the researchers stressed that further research is needed.
“Despite increased sugar consumption after rationing amongst participants, early nutritional environments appear to have lasting relevance for mental health,” said Nophar Geifman, professor at the University of Surrey and senior author of the study.
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The researchers point to the first 1,000 days — from conception through roughly the first two years of life — as an important period for brain development. They also cited earlier research suggesting that diets high in sugar may affect pathways involving serotonin, which plays a role in mood regulation.
CREDIT: Copyright Cleared/Canva.
However, these proposed biological mechanisms remain an area for further investigation. The study was observational and relied on historical exposure to sugar rationing rather than a controlled dietary intervention, meaning the findings cannot by themselves prove that restricting sugar in early life prevents anxiety.
The research was published online in Translational Psychiatry on August 19, 2026.
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