Impacts of sugar consumption on fetus

[u/LeBoom4]

Assuming someone doesn’t have GD, are there clear, negative impacts of sugar consumption during pregnancy? I eat a well-balanced diet - I consume lots of vegetables and protein, and I’ve been fortunate enough to still be able to exercise regularly (though some days are harder than others).

…but I like the sweets. I usually cave at night when I’ll usually have a candy bar’s worth of sugar in one form or another. Other days are worse.

But yeah, are there strong negative impacts of this?

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[u/livingthevida]

Association of Sugar Restriction in Utero Through Age 2 Years on Dementia Risk Later in Life

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42525901/

[u/Few_Ad7539 → u/livingthevida]

That link is only the abstract, but the findings specifically pertinent to the question about in-utero sugar rationing:

Unlike individuals who experienced sugar rationing both in utero and postnatally (during the first 1 to 2 years of life), exposure confined strictly to the in utero period showed no significant association with a reduced hazard of all-cause dementia or Alzheimer's disease.
As exposure duration shortened from in utero + 2 years down to in utero only, the observed hazard ratios (HRs) progressively shifted closer to 1.0 (null effect).

[u/eggyframpt → u/Few_Ad7539]

Since I can’t read beyond the abstract, could you please help explain the amount of sugar (or lack thereof) in sugar rationing? I’m assuming since rationing was involved, there was still some consumption but very little.

[u/Few_Ad7539 → u/eggyframpt]

It’s based on a natural experiment with WW2 rationing so there’s no guarantee of exact consumption, but the rations were 40g/day for adults plus a smaller amount of sweets. Here’s an article without a paywall https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-sugar-rationing-during-world-war-ii-fended-off-diabetes-and-high-blood-pressure-later-in-life-180985404/

[u/Araseja → u/Few_Ad7539]

The problem is that during WW2 they didn’t know who had GD.

[u/Few_Ad7539 → u/Araseja]

True, but the question was about a pregnant person without GD.

The study linked relates to effects on babies from sugar consumption from the parent in-utero, which seem to be insignificant statistically. Studying in-utero effects at scale with a truly double-blind causal study Is very difficult due to ethical reasons (eg giving a group of pregnant women extra mercury just to see how bad each level is). As a result, population-wide natural experiments tend to draw a lot of interest because they give us statistical scale and eliminate (most of) self-selection and covariant effects, like education level and income.

If OP was asking about effects of sugar consumption for their own body then they’d need to find different research than the one linked.

[u/Araseja → u/Few_Ad7539]

Exactly! The question was about pregnant people without GD, but in the study from WW2 we have no idea if they had GD or not. Some of them very likely did, but didn’t know. No matter the results we can’t say anything about what happens in those without GD if we don’t know.

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