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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

#91

Post by Arnor »

anigbrowl wrote: post #68
aaron-lebo wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see any reason to discount the authors, but a couple of things to keep in mind: 1) This is Time's popularization of their study, so Time is naturally going to put forward the most interesting and least nuanced claims of theirs. 2) They may be accomplished researchers, but if you are well-versed in an academic discipline and read material in it, it quickly becomes clear that sometimes points which seem obvious…

The Time article is actually a very dry summary of the study's key finding, written in colloquial but not sensational language. It also has a link to the study in the very first sentence. I found the full text very easily: http://www.chc.ucsf.edu/ame_lab/pdfs/Leung%20et%20al%202014a... The poster above could easily have satisfied his/her own curiosity on this point. 'Did researchers control for [extremely obvious thi…

1. Some of us aren't subscribers to APHA or aren't interested in spending $22 on the article.

2. Why so confrontational? If you know the answer to the question, why not summarize it? Is the answer to the question so complicated that it would take more time and energy than the two paragraphs you composed in derision?

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#92

Post by pc2g4d »

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…

Fruit juice may be good for your telomeres, but there are plenty of other reasons to be suspicious of it---"bro-science" it is not. For example, Google "fruit juice and obesity" or see http://blogs.plos.org/obesitypanacea/2012/03/09/shout-it-fro...

And besides, who says a "bro" can't science? ;)

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#94

Post by song »

anigbrowl wrote: post #67
toomuchtodo wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

There's more than one kind of sugar. Juices have both fructose and glucose; the former is more likely to be stored by the liver, the latter is deployed more widely around the body. Soda has much higher levels of fructose than glucose, thanks to all that high-fructose corn syrup that has become so popular with food manufacturers. There seems to be mounting evidence that high fructose intake is correlated with increase…

I started to research what you said and it seems your mistaken (not sure since I don't know much about the topic).

From what I found, HFCS 55 which is used in soda is 55% fructose and 42% glucose. I haven't found the percentage of fructose and glucose in juices but apparently in a navel orange, there's an average of 8.5 of total sugars comprised of 2.25g fructose, 2.0g fructose and 4.3g of sucrose.

It seems that the ratio is the same as HFCS 55 for navel oranges but the difference is the presence of sucrose which seems not to be present in Soda. I'll have to read more to see if sucrose is more important...

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#95

Post by codyb »

novalis78 wrote: post #64
Gracana wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's the carbonation. When I realized that's the part I really enjoyed, I started drinking seltzer water (and a lot of it, because I didn't get the uncomfortable feeling that sugary soda gave me.)

the other weird thing is how hard it is to find carbonated seltzer in America... in Western Europe you basically trip over container loads of the stuff at every supermarket's entrance. Makes you wonder if carbonated seltzer is what might help change North American soda consumption habits

Really? Where in America?

In New York I've never had any problem finding seltzer. My parents buy it every time they go to the supermarket in upstate New York.

I'm trying to think of how common it is in corner stores. I can't say I've ever looked particularly hard for it. I used to keep my refrigerator in Buffalo stocked with the stuff though. It sure is refreshing.

Thankfully my work provides free cans of seltzer which I drink like water (heh heh!). Although I occasionally wish they would get the kind with a citrus fruit flavoring instead of just plain.

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#96

Post by hiou »

anigbrowl wrote: post #67
toomuchtodo wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

There's more than one kind of sugar. Juices have both fructose and glucose; the former is more likely to be stored by the liver, the latter is deployed more widely around the body. Soda has much higher levels of fructose than glucose, thanks to all that high-fructose corn syrup that has become so popular with food manufacturers. There seems to be mounting evidence that high fructose intake is correlated with increase…

Oh this thread is going to pull out all the fun ones. Can they program anything to penalize any diet / food topics? Nothing smart is ever said and all the studies are always inconclusive and at best hint at new directions for additional research.

Anyhow, to the above comment: http://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-000011000000000000000.ht...

Nutritional studies are worse than physiological studies. It's impossible to control for everything and just gets picked up but one side of the crazies or the other and like they will here just lead to a bunch of speculative anecdotal arguments.

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#97

Post by igorgue »

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?

I do both, like a maniac.

I'd say coke (I drink exclusively diet coke) is equally as addictive as cigarettes.

But the physical dependency is a bit more "dangerous" on coke, with cigarettes there's options to beat that (either have a puff of pot or your e-cig).

I don't think there's anything that can kill my craving of diet coke as much as diet coke.

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#98

Post by danielki »

anigbrowl wrote: post #68
aaron-lebo wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see any reason to discount the authors, but a couple of things to keep in mind: 1) This is Time's popularization of their study, so Time is naturally going to put forward the most interesting and least nuanced claims of theirs. 2) They may be accomplished researchers, but if you are well-versed in an academic discipline and read material in it, it quickly becomes clear that sometimes points which seem obvious…

The Time article is actually a very dry summary of the study's key finding, written in colloquial but not sensational language. It also has a link to the study in the very first sentence. I found the full text very easily: http://www.chc.ucsf.edu/ame_lab/pdfs/Leung%20et%20al%202014a... The poster above could easily have satisfied his/her own curiosity on this point. 'Did researchers control for [extremely obvious thi…

Don't be a dick. I was asking a legitimate question because I was curious about the research methodology and, while the study linked in the article had a price tag of $22, the person I replied to seemed to have access to it. Thanks for finding the full text, I will read it when I get home from work (which is why I didn't have time to search for the full text).

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#99

Post by crusso »

a8da6b0c91d wrote: post #72
DanBC wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

dental hygiene and creating good habits. Tooth removal is an avoidable problem, but a significant cause of hospitalised children in England. http://www.child-smile.org.uk/parents-and-carers/birth-to-3-... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10964323/Tooth-... > Almost 26,000 primary school children were treated for tooth decay in the past year, making it the most common reason youngsters are admitted to hosp…

Tooth decay is caused by vitamin and mineral deficiencies, not sugar consumed during meals. Orange juice and other fruit juices are excellent sources of vitamins and minerals.

With the avalanche of evidence showing negative health impacts from sugar, it's surprising to see someone defending its use.

http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=263708

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/11128706/Fruit-...

There was another recent story showing cultures that had no access to sugar and had a negligible amount of tooth decay; but I can't find the link just now.

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#100

Post by Lambdanaut »

johnward wrote: post #40
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?

For me it's not the sugar it's the caffeine. Also the taste and bubbles. But caffeine is a physical addiction that is literally painful to break.

How about switching over to tea or coffee? Both lack sugar and are full of anti-oxidants.
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