DOI: 10.5061/dryad.2v6wwpzwm
title: Exposure to sugar rationing in the first 1000 days of life protected against chronic disease

description: We examined the impact of exposure to sugar restrictions within 1000 days
 after conception on type 2 diabetes and hypertension, leveraging
 quasi-experimental variation from the end of the United Kingdom’s sugar
 rationing in September 1953. Rationing restricted sugar intake to levels
 within current dietary guidelines, and consumption nearly doubled
 immediately after rationing ended. Using an event study design with UK
 Biobank data comparing adults conceived just before or after rationing
 ended, we found that early-life rationing reduced type 2 diabetes and
 hypertension risk by about 35 and 20% and delayed disease onset by 4 and 2
 years, respectively. Protection was evident with in utero exposure and
 increased with postnatal sugar restriction, especially after 6 months,
 when eating of solid foods likely began. In utero sugar rationing alone
 accounted for about one-third of the risk reduction.
description: This research has been
 conducted using the UK Biobank Resources under Application Number 58599.
 Data were made available to us under a material transfer agreement with
 RAND, USC, UC Berkeley, and U of Chicago. Quarterly food consumption,
 price and annual sugar and sweet sales data were collected manually from
 the National Food Survey reports (25) and article (23) and are available
 here in .dta format. 
description: # Exposure to Sugar Rationing in the First 1000 Days of Life Protected
 Against Chronic Disease
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2v6wwpzwm](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2v6wwpzwm) ## Description of the data and file structure Quarterly data on food consumption and prices were obtained from Family Food historic reports between 1950-1960. These reports are publicly available for download: [https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-food-historic-reports](https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-food-historic-reports). Annual data on sales of sugar and sweets were collected from the manuscript by D. Jackson, "Caries experience in English children and young adults during the years 1947-1972," British Dental Journal, 137, 91-98 (1974). All of these data are available in .dta (STATA) format (Dataset_1000days_*.dta). We also uploaded supporting tables to Fig S5 and S6 (see "SupportingTables_FigS5S6_dryad") in Excel. 1. Dataset_1000days_nutrition_mainFig1.dta - data supporting Figure 1. Variables used: Quarter (calendar time) (qdate); Sugar, % change (nSugars_gday_pct); Fats, % change (nFats_gday_pct); Protein, % change (nProtein_all_gday_pct); Fruits and vegetables, % change (nproduce_gday_pct). 2. Dataset_1000days_Fig_S1.dta - data supporting Figure S1. Variables used: Quarter (calendar time) (qdate); Change in sugar calories consumption (Sugars_gdaycal_diff); Change in total calories consumption (Kcal_diff). 3. Dataset_1000days_SALES_Fig_S2.dta - data supporting Figure S2. Variables used: Year (year); Sweets sold in grams per day (sweets_gday); Sugar sold in grams per day (sugar_gday) 4. Dataset_1000days_NUTRITION_Fig_S3.dta - data supporting Figure S3. Variables used: Quarter (calendar time) (qdate); Daily consumption in grams of butter (butter_gday), margarine (margarine_gday), lard (lard_gday), canned fruit (otherfruit_gday), welfare/school milk in 10s (lmilkwelfareandschoolpt_gday), fish (Fish_gday), cheese (Cheese_gday), uncooked bacon and ham (baconandhamuncooked_gday), flour (flour_gday), milk in 10s (MilkCream_gday10), fresh fruit in 10s (freshfruit_gday10), fresh vegetables in 10s (Vegetables_gday10), bread in 10s (bread_gday10), cereals in 10s (totalcereals_gday10), and meats in 10s (Meats_gday10). 5. Dataset_1000days_foodafford.dta - data supporting Figure S4. Variables used: Calendar year (year_prices); Quarter (quarter_prices); Study variable in quarters (rv), Food prices relative to CPI, indexed 100 in 1953q3 (rfood_pricesq3); Food prices relative to wages, indexed 100 in 1953q3 (rfoodprice_wageq3) 6. SupportingTables_FigS5S6_dryad.xsls - tables supporting Figures S5 and S6. UK Biobank was also used in the analyses of this manuscript. We cannot share UK Biobank data per our materials transfer agreement (application number 58599), however UK Biobank data are available to obtain directly through the UK Biobank data application process. You can find these data and instructions on how to access them here: [https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk](https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk). ## Code/Software This repository includes the replication code for "Exposure to Sugar Rationing in the First 1000 Days of Life Protected Against Chronic Disease" authored by Gracner, Tadeja, Boone, Claire, and Gertler, J. Paul. STATA 18.0 MP was used to conduct empirical data analyses. We provide do-files that replicate all figures and tables presented in this manuscript. STATA do files include labels for each table or figure that they produce. There are three do-files: • Data preparation do-file: 0_data_preparation.do • Main text analyses (tables, figures) do-file: 1_main_analyses.do • Supplement text analyses (tables, figures) do-file: 2_supplement_analyses.do