Grant: Project Grant

Added sugars such as sucrose (table sugar) are extremely common in the diet, in Canada and across the globe. The World Health Organization advises that added sugars should be 5% or less of daily calories for adults, and avoided entirely by children under 2 years of age. However, most Canadian adults and children exceed these recommendations, and millions of Canadians get 20% or more of their calories from added sugars. Of particular concern, added sugars during early development might disrupt hormones, rewire brain circuits, and alter behaviours over the long term. This project will use an animal model to experimentally reveal how maternal sucrose consumption during pregnancy and lactation affects the offspring. This project will examine the long-lasting effects on critical hormones, brain chemicals, and behaviours. The results will allow us to better understand how maternal diet "programs" stress hormones, the brain's reward system, and sugar-seeking behaviours in the offspring. The work will help identify and understand new ways in which added sugars contribute to diet-related diseases in people, which will be communicated to researchers, health care providers, the general public, and specific groups.