Latest / Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor / Wisdom Wednesdays: Is this the most significant way to impact lifetime risk of certain chronic diseases?

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Wisdom Wednesdays: Is this the most significant way to impact lifetime risk of certain chronic diseases? · Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor

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  Speaker 1: you now home on the podcast. Hey everyone, welcome to
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  Speaker 1: another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays.
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  Speaker 2: So today I want to dive into an area that
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  Speaker 2: has had researchers and health experts raising red flags for
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  Speaker 2: years and then there's been backlashes against it from the industry.
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  Speaker 1: And the topic is added sugar. So it's actually one
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  Speaker 1: of the most prevalent ingredients in processed food and beverages,
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  Speaker 1: particularly ultra processed food and beverages. And why most of
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  Speaker 1: us know about the obvious risks such as diabetes and obesity,
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  Speaker 1: there is now growing evidence that the damage from sugar
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  Speaker 1: may start much earlier than we think. So one recent
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  Speaker 1: study reveals that sugar exposure in the very first stages
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  Speaker 1: of life, so think about in utero and during the
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  Speaker 1: first couple of years after birth. This exposure to sugar
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  Speaker 1: can actually set the stage for lifelong health issues. And
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  Speaker 1: this is particularly concerning when you see now the increase
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  Speaker 1: in sugar in fructose that is added to lots of
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  Speaker 1: kids foods, our kids, our foods for toddlers, including actually
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  Speaker 1: formula milk, which is just bonkers. But what this research
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  Speaker 1: has shown that we're seeing lifelong increase risk for diabetes,
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  Speaker 1: high blood pressure, and obesity, and actually start with that
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  Speaker 1: early sugar exposure but manifest decades down the line. So
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  Speaker 1: could it really be that the sugar we're supposed to
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  Speaker 1: his infants and even before birth has this lasting effect
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  Speaker 1: on our body. So let's take a little bit of
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  Speaker 1: a look at the research so they understand how early
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  Speaker 1: life sugar exposure can impact us long term. Let's start
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  Speaker 1: with some numbers. So right now, in the United States,
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  Speaker 1: nearly three quarters of adults are consuming over seventy grams
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  Speaker 1: of added sugar per day. That's more than three times
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  Speaker 1: the recommended amount, which people think that recommended much should
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  Speaker 1: be a lot lower. Some people think that. Now. The
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  Speaker 1: data is similar in the UK and in Australia. In Australia,
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  Speaker 1: the data from two thousand and eleven to twenty twelve
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  Speaker 1: showed that on average, people in Australia consume sixty grams
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  Speaker 1: of sugar per day and that's added sugars and we
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  Speaker 1: know it's been increasing, so it's probably on par with
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  Speaker 1: the US. So this is a widespread problem, and particularly
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  Speaker 1: with countries with high exposure. Are high instance, our eatings
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  Speaker 1: I should say of ultra processed food and the worst
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  Speaker 1: countries in the world. I've said this before the United States, Kingdom, Australia, Canada,
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  Speaker 1: New Zealand, and Mexico. Now we all know that excessive
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  Speaker 1: sugar contributes to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. But what's
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  Speaker 1: not widely understood is that high sugar intake is linked
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  Speaker 1: to a whole range of other health risks, from a
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  Speaker 1: whole range of different cancers and disruptions of hormones, and
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  Speaker 1: even shrinkings of brain what we call brain atrophy, and
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  Speaker 1: that's in adults. But here's where the research gets really interesting.
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  Speaker 1: This study showed that restricting sugar intake in the first
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  Speaker 1: thousand days of life, so from conception to around the
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  Speaker 1: age of two, so if you include that nine months
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  Speaker 1: in the womb, that had a powerful effect. Researchers found
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  Speaker 1: that limiting sugar during this critical window actually reduced lifetime
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  Speaker 1: risk of diabetes by a whopping thirty five percent, reduced
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  Speaker 1: lifetime risk of hypertension by twenty percent, and lifetime risk
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  Speaker 1: of obesity by thirty percent. And those numbers are massive.
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  Speaker 1: So what are the researchers uncover that might explain it well.
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  Speaker 1: The study that we're talking about was actually inspired by
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  Speaker 1: what researchers call a natural experiment that happened in the
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  Speaker 1: UK during the nineteen fifties. After World War Two, Britain
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  Speaker 1: imposted sugar rationing for a number of years, and this
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  Speaker 1: meant that young children and pregnant women were consuming far
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  Speaker 1: less sugar than they typically were before the war and
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  Speaker 1: before the rationing, and the researchers took a closer look
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  Speaker 1: at children who were conceived and born during this rationing period,
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  Speaker 1: comparing them to those that were born shortly after sugar
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  Speaker 1: rationing ended. Now think of it as a high sugar
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  Speaker 1: group and a low sugar group. Now, interestingly, the children
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  Speaker 1: in a low sugar group who were exposed to restricted
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  Speaker 1: sugar intake both in the womb and his infants ended
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  Speaker 1: up with much lower rates of diabetes, hypertension, and obesity
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  Speaker 1: as adults, and they also developed these conditions. When they
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  Speaker 1: did develop them, it was later in life than the
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  Speaker 1: high sugar group. So, for example, diabetes and hypertension typically
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  Speaker 1: emerge two to four years later on average in the
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  Speaker 1: low sugar group compared to the high sugar group. And
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  Speaker 1: as I said earlier, on much less incidents as well.
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  Speaker 1: So these findings suggest that there's what we call a
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  Speaker 1: dose dependent relationship between early sugar exposure and those health risks.
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  Speaker 1: In other words, the longer that we can protect young
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  Speaker 1: people and particularly children from added sugar, the greater the
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  Speaker 1: reduction and disease risk that they experienced later on. But
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  Speaker 1: it's not just the amount of sugar. It's also about
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  Speaker 1: when that sugar is consumed. So early development, particularly the
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  Speaker 1: first thousand days of life, is a critical time when
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  Speaker 1: nutritional exposures can permanently affect health. And we've seen this
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  Speaker 1: over and over again in different bits of research, and
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  Speaker 1: this is what researchers called the develop mental origins hypothesis.
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  Speaker 1: And basically, what a mother consumes during pregnancy and what
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  Speaker 1: an infant eats in the first two years of life
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  Speaker 1: can set the stage for health or disease down the road.
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  Speaker 1: And the size behind this involves some pretty fascinating biology.
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  Speaker 1: And one big piece of this puzzle is a process
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  Speaker 1: known as epigenetics, which you've heard me talk about before.
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  Speaker 1: So this is where environmental factors, in this case, a
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  Speaker 1: high sugar diet, can actually change how our genes express themselves,
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  Speaker 1: whether they're turned on and how long they're turned on
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  Speaker 1: or switched off. Now, these changes aren't easily reversible, meaning
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  Speaker 1: that they can actually lock in health risks long term,
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  Speaker 1: making a child more prone to obesity or diabetes later
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  Speaker 1: in life. And we've seen the same thing with other
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  Speaker 1: research around mental health issues as well. And it's not
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  Speaker 1: just theory. These epigenetic effects have been demonstrated in multiple studies.
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  Speaker 1: So what does this mean for parents or for anybody
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  Speaker 1: planning to start a family. Well, the studies findings reinforce
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  Speaker 1: the importance of minimizing added sugar in the dad of
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  Speaker 1: young children, and especially in pregnant mothers. And now that
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  Speaker 1: might seem pretty hard to do, particularly about how much
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  Speaker 1: sugar is around in our food, but we can actually
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  Speaker 1: have big effect with a few basic strategies. So here's
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  Speaker 1: the first few things. If you're pregnant or you're thinking
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  Speaker 1: about getting pregnant, is really about limiting added sugars. And
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  Speaker 1: this is really about focusing on real foods. I've banged
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  Speaker 1: on about this over time, having low HI stuff, so
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  Speaker 1: stuff that has been minimally interfered with by humans. And
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  Speaker 1: then absolutely critical is to avoid giving toddlers any type
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  Speaker 1: of sugary drinks or snacks, and just be aware of
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  Speaker 1: all of these toddler foods. If you just look at
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  Speaker 1: the labels, you'll see how much sugar is in these
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  Speaker 1: ready to eat toddler foods. And as I said, now
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  Speaker 1: it's starting to creep into formula milk, particularly in some
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  Speaker 1: third world countries, which is really concerning. And I think
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  Speaker 1: the key thing, particularly when I reflect back and when
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  Speaker 1: we were bringing up our kids and Cary was a
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  Speaker 1: big driver of this, and we just did not give
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  Speaker 1: them those process foods that you buy in the supermarkets.
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  Speaker 1: I know they're easy, they're very convenient, and it's really
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  Speaker 1: frigging hard whenever you are our children of young parents,
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  Speaker 1: life is bloody hard, and it's so easy just to
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  Speaker 1: reach for those little snack foods, but they are just
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  Speaker 1: nutritional disasters. And what the research is showing now is
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  Speaker 1: that a early life exposure, As with lots of things,
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  Speaker 1: early life exposure has much greater of an impact than
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  Speaker 1: exposure later in life. And for me, there's no reason
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  Speaker 1: to think that this doesn't extend not just for the
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  Speaker 1: first couple of years, but that our early life. So
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  Speaker 1: any researcher will tell you that there are big epigenetic
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  Speaker 1: periods in the womb that early life, and then another
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  Speaker 1: massive epigenetic period is when they actually go through puberty.
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  Speaker 1: And when you look at the diet of kids going
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  Speaker 1: through puberty. We know in the United States and in
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  Speaker 1: the United Kingdom, and I think it's going to be
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  Speaker 1: very similar here once we get the data in Australia.
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  Speaker 1: I mean is that sixty six percent of all calories
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  Speaker 1: consumed by teenagers are ultra process crap. And all you
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  Speaker 1: have to do is go to the school that your
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  Speaker 1: kids go to and go into the talk shop and
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  Speaker 1: see the sort of stuff that is sold. And yes,
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  Speaker 1: it is a lot harder to prepare lunches and to
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  Speaker 1: not give in to your kids saying that they won't
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  Speaker 1: buy the stuff in the talk shops. It is a
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  Speaker 1: hell of a lot harder, but it's pretty important stuff
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  Speaker 1: and the researchers show just how important that is. That's
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  Speaker 1: it for this week, folks, Catch you next time.