New Study Says a Regular Soda Habit May Age You Just as Much as Smoking

Examining soda’s effect on health.

As Time reports, Elissa Epel, PhD, a professor of psychiatry at University of California San Francisco, examined “telomeres” (which are, basically, the caps at the ends of chromosomes in every cell in our bodies) from white blood cells in order to figure out why sodas impact the body in a negative way.

Regular soda drinking generally causes telomeres to become shorter.

Shorter telomeres are often linked to dangerous conditions like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and even shorter lifespans, and age (i.e. shorten) naturally over time. However, Dr. Epel’s study proved that soda can speed up this natural process: Consuming 8 ounces of sugary soda per day shortened telomeres and added about “1.9 years of additional aging.” Drinking even more, about 20 ounces per day, led to as much as 4.6 years of additional aging, which is, similar to the effects of smoking.

Full-sugar sodas are the culprit.

However, it’s important to point out that Epel’s study only found such negative impacts on the body’s chromosomes in subjects that consumed carbonated, sugary beverages. Diet soda and non-carbonated libations, such as fruit juice, seemed to have no such influence on telomeres or cell aging.

Originally published by Delish

Article Appeared http://www.esquire.com/blogs/food-for-men/soda-ages-you-as-much-as-smoking-esqsyn?click=feed

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *