A new study suggests that nutrition during the earliest stages of life may be linked to mental health more than 50 years later. Researchers analyzed data from 46,448 UK Biobank participants born during Britain’s postwar sugar-rationing period and found that people exposed to rationing for the longest periods during pregnancy and their first two years had lower risks of anxiety and depression in later life. The study also identified differences in several brain regions among people with different levels of early-life rationing exposure. However, adult sugar intake and sweet-food preferences were largely similar across groups. The findings suggest that early-life nutrition may influence long-term brain and mental health, although the observational study cannot prove that sugar restriction directly prevented anxiety or depression.
Read more at NewsMedical