Accelerated aging: the downside of sugar you can slow

Sometimes I’m surprised by the research I read — a new finding or a novel approach to a health problem.

Other times, the research just adds to the pile of proof that already exists about something.

This one is the latter.

Over the years I’ve read and written about the dangers of sugar. Research has revealed that sugar…

• increases the risk of dying with heart disease, per Harvard
• makes tumors more aggressive
• encourages your body to produce kidney stones

… just to name a few.

So it didn’t surprise me in the least to hear that cutting out sugar helps slow your body’s aging process.

Biological vs chronological age: what’s the difference?

We have our actual age — the number of years we’ve been alive — and then we have our biological age, which in simple terms is the wear and tear on cells and organs.

Your healthspan is more than just how many years you live. It’s the length of time you get to live a healthy, disease-free, productive life.

And it shouldn’t come as a surprise by now that eating sugar shortens your healthy years on this earth.

Now we know one way that does that is interfering with how your body ages…

Sugars impact on your body’s rate of aging

“We knew that high levels of added sugars are linked to worsened metabolic health and early disease, possibly more than any other dietary factor,” says UC San Francisco professor Dr. Elissa Epel. 

“Now we know that accelerated epigenetic aging is underlying this relationship, and this is likely one of many ways that excessive sugar intake limits healthy longevity.” 

In other words, sugars cause diseases, but the real cause of those diseases is sugar’s impact on the body’s rate of aging.

The researchers scored the diets of 342 women, both Black and white, against a measure they created called the “Epigenetic Nutrient Index (ENI)”, which is based on nutrients (not foods) that have been linked to anti-oxidative or anti-inflammatory processes and DNA maintenance and repair.

These include Vitamins A, C, B12 and E, folate, selenium, magnesium, dietary fiber and isoflavones.  

They also scored their diets to see how they compared to a Mediterranean-style diet rich in anti-inflammatory and antioxidant foods and then to a diet linked to lower risk for chronic disease.  

Sticking to any of these diets was significantly associated with lower epigenetic age — the degree of aging based on patterns of DNA methylation (a biological process that helps determine how quickly the aging process moves along).

But the addition of sugar sped everything up…

This study found that eating foods with added sugar was associated with accelerated biological aging — even when someone ate an otherwise healthy diet.

In other words, eating too much sugar can undo the benefits of sticking to an otherwise healthy diet, sabotaging all your efforts toward a long healthy life.

Cutting down on sugar: where to start

Added sugars are just that. They are added to increase the sweetness of foods or drinks, usually at very high amounts, and almost always in processed foods. That’s why eating fruits or vegetables that are on the naturally sweet side doesn’t have the deleterious effects that added sugars do.

Obviously, reducing sugary treats, like ice cream, cake and cookies is the easiest place to start.

But there are plenty of sneaky sources of sugar that could have you making all those other sacrifices and still getting too much. Here are some of the sneakiest according to the National Kidney Foundation:

Condiments: Ketchup, sweet pickle relish and barbeque sauce may have as much as 4-5 grams of sugar per each 1 tablespoon serving.

Breakfast cereals: Most cereals can contain as much as 32-40 grams of sugar in just a ½ cup serving! Some healthier options may take that down to 4-10 grams per serving.

White bread: Not only is white bread stripped of whole wheat grain and almost all of its fiber and nutritional value, it contains high levels of sugar that spike glucose levels.

High Fructose Syrup: Because it’s so cheap, processed food manufacturers love it. You’ll find it in baked goods, but even in less obvious places, including pizza, bread, salad dressing and one you’d think is healthy — yogurt. One tablespoon of HFCS contains over 14 grams of sugar.

Soft drinks: Yes, you already know they are full of sugar, but giving up this one thing can make a huge dent in your sugar consumption. One soft drink has about seven teaspoons of sugar! That’s probably why a 30-year study recently named sodas and processed meat as the 2 worst ultraprocessed foods for our health.

Milk: You can drink about 12 grams of sugar in a glass of dairy whole milk. Some brands of whole milk that are ultraprocessed and ultrafiltered contain half that amount — and more protein.

Lean towards fresh fruits and vegetables (sweet potatoes are one of my favorites). They will be sweet but have the fiber your body needs to process the natural sugars.

But whatever you do, avoid artificial sweeteners and alternative sweeteners, like xylitol and erythritol that have been linked to blood clots.

Sources:

Healthy diet with less sugar is linked to younger biological age — Eureka Alert

Essential Nutrients, Added Sugar Intake, and Epigenetic Age in Midlife Black and White Women: NIMHD Social Epigenomics Program — JAMA Network

5 Sneaky Sources of Sugar — National Kidney Foundation

Here are the ultraprocessed foods you most need to avoid, according to a 30-year study — CNN