4 replies to this topic

[mike_nyc]

Sugar Accelerates Aging Process As Much As Smoking, Study Says

http://www.rttnews.c...s.aspx?type=hnr

 

10/20/2014 3:45 PM ET

Sugar speeds up the aging process as much as smoking, according to research conducted at the University of California at San Francisco. The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, surveyed data on over 5,300 healthy Americans from a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

 

The research team found that drinking a soda every day costs the body slightly over 4.5 years of aging, the same amount of aging incurred by smokers.

 

"We think we can get away with drinking lots of soda as long as we are not gaining weight, but this suggests that there is an invisible pathway that leads to accelerated aging, regardless of weight," psychiatry professor Elissa Epel, senior author of the study, told CBS.

 

The team also noted that sugar-sweetened fizzy drinks cause cell changes. Every can of soda makes the body's telomeres, a part of chromosomes associated with aging, shorter, decreasing its life cycle and possibly causing diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and some forms of cancer.

[Chrystoph Kardashev]

*sips water*

 

 

The article doesn't define "sugar". I stay away from all types though.

Edited by Chrystoph Kardashev, 20 October 2014 - 09:56 PM.

[corb]

Well that's unfortunate for me then, because I'm not gonna stop drinking a liter of fruit juice every day even though I fully know it's 300% of my supposed daily carb intake limit.

There is little point to life if you remove every pleasure.

[Metagene]

Well that's unfortunate for me then, because I'm not gonna stop drinking a liter of fruit juice every day even though I fully know it's 300% of my supposed daily carb intake limit.

There is little point to life if you remove every pleasure.

 

You could still buy fruit juices sweetened with stevia.

[Darryl]

The study:

 

Leung, C. W., Laraia, B. A., Needham, B. L., Rehkopf, D. H., Adler, N. E., Lin, J., ... & Epel, E. S. (2014). Soda and cell aging: associations between sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and leukocyte telomere length in healthy adults from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. American journal of public health, (0), e1-e7.

 

No effect from 100% fruit juice, or from diet soda, and the telomere length change with sugar sweetened beverage consumption wasn't dose dependent.

 

My guess is they're mostly seeing an association with dietary pattern, as Healthy Eating Index 2005 (their diet pattern adjustment) is so problematic academic nutritionists have created alternative measures.