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Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

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Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#21

Post by johnchristopher »

vinceguidry wrote: post #11
geoka9 wrote: post #9

It's hard for me to understand the whole soda phenomenon in Canada and the US. Is it as addictive as cigarettes? Does it make you crave for more? Or it simply tastes so good that you can't get enough of it? Why not eat a bunch of apples instead (if you don't care about the amount of sugar you consume)? Wouldn't they taste better?

Pretty sure it's mostly due to marketing and also vertically integrated markets. You can't get away from soft drink advertising in the US. And the stuff is literally everywhere. In many (most?) restaurants, your beverage choices comprise soda and water. I would not be surprised at all if soda alone accounted for a double-digit percentage of the obesity rate.

> [..] In many (most?) restaurants, your beverage choices comprise soda and water.

This reminds me that in Belgium there's a fast food chain with menus for which the cashier can't swap the soda for water.

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#22

Post by mbca »

Were these sodas sweetened with cane sugar or high-fructose corn syrup?

(I did look at the abstract of the actual paper, but it doesn't seem to specify. The full paper might say, but it's paywalled.)

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#23

Post by mikeyouse »

danielki wrote: post #16
mikeyouse wrote: post #3

The key results from the paper: After adjustment for sociodemographic and health-related characteristics, sugar-sweetened soda consumption was associated with shorter telomeres (b = –0.010; 95% confidence interval [CI] = −0.020, −0.001; P = .04). Consumption of 100% fruit juice was marginally associated with longer telomeres (b = 0.016; 95% CI = −0.000, 0.033; P = .05). No significant associations were observed betwe…

Did they describe how they controlled for behavioral habits? It seems like, as a group, the type of people who would drink large amounts of sugary soda would be less likely to make healthy behavioral choices in other aspects of their life, compared to people who drink fruit juice or diet soda. This could also explain the disparity between soda and non-carbonated sugar-sweetened beverages This study doesn't seem to sh…

> This study doesn't seem to show that soda ages you (as the article states), but instead that sugary soda consumption indicates a tendency towards other activities/habits that may prematurely age you.

No offense, but the authors are very accomplished public health researchers. If their study showed what you suggest, I think that would be their headline. What they showed with (relative) certainty is that those who drink sugary carbonated drinks have shorter telomeres than those who don't. There will be follow-up work to determine the mechanism and the causes.

In either case;

> 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.

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#24

Post by bengarvey »

stealthlogic wrote: post #5
bengarvey wrote: post #2

Just in case anyone was wondering about diet soda... "Only the sugary, bubbly stuff showed this effect. Epel didn’t see any association between telomere length and diet soda intake. "

There are studies that link Diet Soda to other vascular risks. http://www.miami.edu/index.php/news/releases/study_finds_pos... There are also studies emerging which link artificial sweeteners to Diabetes. http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/sep/17/artificial-sw...

Right yes, but not in this particular study

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#25

Post by boydjd »

geoka9 wrote: post #9

It's hard for me to understand the whole soda phenomenon in Canada and the US. Is it as addictive as cigarettes? Does it make you crave for more? Or it simply tastes so good that you can't get enough of it? Why not eat a bunch of apples instead (if you don't care about the amount of sugar you consume)? Wouldn't they taste better?

What are you drinking instead of soda in your country?

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#26

Post by ep103 »

stealthlogic wrote: post #5
bengarvey wrote: post #2

Just in case anyone was wondering about diet soda... "Only the sugary, bubbly stuff showed this effect. Epel didn’t see any association between telomere length and diet soda intake. "

There are studies that link Diet Soda to other vascular risks. http://www.miami.edu/index.php/news/releases/study_finds_pos... There are also studies emerging which link artificial sweeteners to Diabetes. http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/sep/17/artificial-sw...

I think its generally understood that most artificial sweeteners are seen as sugar by the body, but don't actually get turned into sugar in the bloodstream. So it makes sense that it might contribute to diabetes (your body digests it like sugar), but not aging (which is accelerated by sugar in the bloodstream). I believe the whole point of coke 0 is that it doesn't use an artificial sweetener? But don't quote me on that last sentence.

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#27

Post by toomuchtodo »

mikeyouse wrote: post #3

The key results from the paper: After adjustment for sociodemographic and health-related characteristics, sugar-sweetened soda consumption was associated with shorter telomeres (b = –0.010; 95% confidence interval [CI] = −0.020, −0.001; P = .04). Consumption of 100% fruit juice was marginally associated with longer telomeres (b = 0.016; 95% CI = −0.000, 0.033; P = .05). No significant associations were observed betwe…

> So they saw 'aging' with sugar-sweetened soda, the opposite with fruit juice, and no significant difference with diet sodas or non-carbonated sugary sodas.

What compounds in soda are most likely causing this? If they're not seeing the results in fruit juice, its not sugar causing the damage.

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#28

Post by valarauca1 »

johnchristopher wrote: post #21
vinceguidry wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure it's mostly due to marketing and also vertically integrated markets. You can't get away from soft drink advertising in the US. And the stuff is literally everywhere. In many (most?) restaurants, your beverage choices comprise soda and water. I would not be surprised at all if soda alone accounted for a double-digit percentage of the obesity rate.

> [..] In many (most?) restaurants, your beverage choices comprise soda and water. This reminds me that in Belgium there's a fast food chain with menus for which the cashier can't swap the soda for water.

This is true for a lot of US resturants (especially fast food) they don't have a button for water, instead they just ring up a soda, and fill it with water.

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#29

Post by squiguy7 »

geoka9 wrote: post #9

It's hard for me to understand the whole soda phenomenon in Canada and the US. Is it as addictive as cigarettes? Does it make you crave for more? Or it simply tastes so good that you can't get enough of it? Why not eat a bunch of apples instead (if you don't care about the amount of sugar you consume)? Wouldn't they taste better?

Given that some of the drinks are also caffeinated, many people drink them as an alternative to coffee or tea. In this sense they can become addictive.

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#30

Post by orclev »

brandonl222 wrote: post #7
squozzer wrote: post #4

It's funny but one never hears about the ill effects of carrots. "They" only study stuff that's already assumed to be bad for you. Ever wonder why?

Probably because mass consumption of carrots isn't a top public health issue? If consumption of carrots rivaled that of soda I'd be willing to bet there would be more studies on it just the same as there are studies on various other foods such as red meat, egg cholesterol, fish oil, etc.

Actually mass consumption of carrots can cause your skin to develop an orange tint (seriously, not joking here).
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