Less Sugar in Early Years Means Better Mental Health

Sugar was rationed after WWII, creating a natural experiment with implications for depression and anxiety

STUDY: Dou X et al, General Psychiatry 2026

STUDY TYPE: Quasi-experimental cohort study (natural experiment)

FUNDING: Independent

Background

The first 1,000 days, from conception to age 2, shape the brain’s stress and reward circuits for life. In animal studies, sugar worsens brain function and behavior, particularly high fructose corn syrup. The effects are pronounced enough that controlled human trials are ethically questionable, but a period of post-war sugar rationing in Britain created a natural comparison.

The Study

• 66,223 UK Biobank adults born between 1951 and 1956, spanning the end of Britain’s wartime sugar rationing in September 1953.
• Compared those conceived or born before the cutoff (rationed, low sugar) to those born just after (unrationed, sugar intake nearly doubled overnight).
• Followed participants from birth through 2022 for first diagnosis of anxiety or depression.

Sugar rationing during the first 1,000 days lowered lifetime anxiety risk by 17% and depression risk by 14%. The longer the exposure, the bigger the benefit: rationing through age 2 cut anxiety risk by 24% and depression risk by 21%, compared to just 8% and 6% with in utero exposure alone. Rationing also delayed the first diagnosis, by about 2 years for anxiety and 4 years for depression.

To test the specificity of the findings, the researchers compared other outcomes like migraine and type 1 diabetes, but they showed no association. Likewise, a placebo cutoff analysis came back null, both supporting a real effect rather than a statistical artifact.

Practice Implications

1. Many of my patients have cut sugar with results within weeks: Greater mental clarity, energy, and even sharpened sensations.
2. But don’t swap for artificial sweeteners. They are linked to higher depression rates and — in animal studies — hippocampal shrinkage.
3. Sugar is rewarding, but doesn’t feel good. All psychological variables are unchanged or worse (eg, fatigue) even as soon as 15 minutes after ingesting it.
4. Sugar cravings usually go away within a few weeks. It is not “as addictive as cocaine” (despite the internet rumours).
5. Healthy fats are an effective way to manage sugar cravings. Learn more about them in the diet for depression.

—Chris Aiken, MD
Director, Psych Partners
Editor in Chief, Carlat Psychiatry Report

What’s Your Take? Share in Comments