by April McCarthy
October 20, 2014
from
PreventDisease Website
Spanish version
Italian version
April McCarthy is a
community journalist playing an active role reporting
and analyzing world events to advance our health and
eco-friendly initiatives. |
The message to stop
smoking issued by public health officials has been nothing less than
paramount, repetitive and consistent in the last several decades.
What
about soft drinks? Daily consumption of just a half-liter of soda is
linked with 4.6 years of additional biological aging, effects
comparable to that of smoking, finds a new study.
The
study found that drinking soft drinks is associated with cell aging,
suggesting sugar-sweetened soda consumption might promote disease
independently from its role in obesity.
The study revealed that
telomeres - the protective units of DNA that
cap the ends of chromosomes in cells - were shorter in the white
blood cells of survey participants who reported drinking more soda.
The
findings were reported in the American
Journal of Public Health (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).
The length of telomeres within white blood cells - where it can most
easily be measured - has previously been associated with human
lifespan.
Short telomeres also
have been associated with the development of chronic diseases of
aging, including heart disease, diabetes, and some types of cancer.
"Regular
consumption of sugar-sweetened sodas might influence disease
development, not only by straining the body's metabolic control
of sugars, but also through accelerated cellular aging of
tissues," said senior study author Elissa Epel, professor of
psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
"This is the first demonstration that soda is associated with
telomere shortness," Epel said.
"This finding held regardless of age, race, income and education
level. Telomere shortening starts long before disease onset.
Further, although we only studied adults here, it is possible
that soda consumption is associated with telomere shortening in
children, as well."
The
authors compared telomere length and sugar-sweetened soda
consumption for each participant at a single time point, and that an
association does not necessarily demonstrate causation.
Elissa Epel
is co-leading a new study in which participants will be tracked for
weeks in real time to look for effects of sugar-sweetened soda
consumption on aspects of cellular aging. Telomere shortening has
previously been associated with oxidative damage to tissue, to
inflammation, and to insulin resistance.
Based on the way telomere length shortens on average with
chronological age, the UCSF researchers calculated that daily
consumption of a 20-ounce soda was associated with 4.6 years of
additional biological aging.
This
effect on telomere length is comparable to the effect of smoking, or
to the effect of regular exercise in the opposite, anti-aging
direction, according to UCSF postdoctoral fellow Cindy Leung,
ScD, from the
UCSF Center for Health and Community
and the lead author of the newly published study.
The average sugar-sweetened soda
consumption for all survey participants was 12 ounces.
About 21 percent in this nationally representative
sample reported drinking at least 20 ounces of sugar-sweetened soda
a day.
"It is critical to understand both dietary
factors that may shorten telomeres, as well as dietary factors
that may lengthen telomeres," Leung said.
"Here it appeared that the only beverage
consumption that had a measurable negative association with
telomere length was consumption of sugared soda."
The finding adds a new consideration to the list of
links that has tied sugary beverages to obesity, metabolic syndrome,
type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, and that has driven
legislators and activists in several U.S. jurisdictions to champion
ballet initiatives that would tax sugar-sweetened beverage purchases
with the goal of discouraging consumption and improving public
health.
The UCSF researchers measured telomeres after
obtaining stored DNA from 5,309 participants, ages 20 to 65, with no
history of diabetes or cardiovascular disease, who had participated
in the nation’s largest ongoing health survey, called the
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, during the
years 1999 through 2002.
They found that the amount of sugar-sweetened soda a
person consumed was associated with telomere length, as measured in
the laboratory of Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD, professor of
biochemistry at UCSF and a winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine for her telomere-related discoveries.
A
15-year study (Dietary
Intakes of Carbohydrates in Relation to Prostate Cancer Risk) found those who drank
300ml of a fizzy drink a day - slightly less than a standard can -
were 40 percent more likely to develop prostate cancer than men who
avoid the drinks.
Consider the hard facts about soft drinks: soda
consumption could lead to various health problems, and scientists
are adding to the list seemingly every day.
Here are 10 reasons
to put down the cola and quit adding to the billions gallons of soda
consumed in the United States annually:
-
Dehydration
Because caffeine is a diuretic, it
leads to an increase in urine volume. So, when you drink a
caffeinated soda to quench your thirst, you will actually
become thirstier.
-
High
calories
A can of regular cola contains over
150 calories. Not only are these calories devoid of any
nutritional value, but they also deplete your body of vital
nutrients.
-
Caffeine
addiction
Researchers at Johns Hopkins
University say when people don't get their usual dose of
caffeine from soda, they can suffer a range of withdrawal
symptoms including headache, fatigue, muscle pain and
inability to concentrate.
-
Acid
The
amount of acid in soda is
enough to wear away at the enamel of your teeth, making them
more susceptible to decay. In tests done on the acidity
levels of soda, certain ones were found to have PH levels as
low as 2.5. To put that into perspective, consider that
battery acid has a pH of 1 and pure water has a pH of 7.
-
Money
A person who drinks just 2 cans of
soda a day will pay $206 over the course of a year to keep
the habit going. If there is more than one soda drinker in
the household, that yearly total could quickly double or
even triple.
-
Weight gain
Researchers at the University of Texas say
artificial sweeteners can interfere with the body's natural
ability to regulate calorie intake. This could mean that
people who consume artificially sweetened items are more
likely to overindulge.
-
Artificial
sweeteners
Many people opt for
diet sodas to cut out the
calories, but some research shows the sweeteners may cause
additional harm, such as cancer.
-
Mineral
depletion
Colas contain
phosphoric acid and caffeine,
which drain calcium from the bones. Also, because caffeine
increases urine volume, more minerals end up leaving the
body before having a chance to be properly absorbed.
-
Diabetes
Some scientists believe that the unceasing
demands a soda habit places on the pancreas may ultimately
leave it unable to keep up with the body's need for insulin
- which could eventually lead to diabetes. The daily
consumption of soda does contribute to other problems, such
as obesity - a leading cause of diabetes.
-
A
replacement for healthier drinks
In the 1950's, children drank healthier
beverages and more water. Today that statistic has flipped
and children are drinking more unhealthy beverages and less
water.
Sources
|