Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by cognitive decline. However, the cause of AD is complex and has not yet been fully elucidated. In 2024, The Lancet published that modifying risk factors and lifestyle can prevent or delay AD by 40 per cent, highlighting the need to focus on intervenable risk factors for AD. Diet, as a modifiable factor, can influence the course of AD through a variety of pathways, including inflammation, the blood-brain barrier, and the microbial-gut-brain axis. Some studies have showed high-sucrose diet may have a negative effect on cognitive function. Recently, a study based on the UK Biobank database has demonstrated a positive correlation between the level of sugar intake and the incidence of AD. However, sucrose intake occurs primarily in the early years of life, especially in childhood and adolescence, rather than in later life when cognitive function declines. Therefore, it is important to answer the question whether sucrose intake in the early years of life affect cognitive function in old age.
To explore this question, we will exploit a unique natural experiment – the sugar and sweets rationing during 1940-1953 in the United Kingdom (UK) – that provides variation in consumption of sugar and sweets in childhood and adolescence. In our study, we will include the participants whose childhood and adolescence before or after rationing and compare their cognition function and prevalence of AD in the old age. This project will be conducted for 3 years.
This project will provide new evidence for dietary reference on sucrose intake for children and adolescents, for their long-term cognitive health.
