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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

#201

Post by iribe »

mikeash wrote: post #52
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.

Could it be that sugar is responsible, but other stuff in fruit juice somehow inhibits it or compensates for it?

I bet Deepak Chopra knows, and it has something to do with quantum energy.

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#202

Post by iribe »

Afforess wrote: post #77
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 drink (diet) soda because I need caffeine in the mornings. I am not a morning person and never have been. Without caffeine, I will not be mentally alert before 11am. I hate the taste of coffee, so soda it is.

Caffeine pills.

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#203

Post by tsotha »

orclev wrote: post #30
brandonl222 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

Heh. My brother's wife was starting to look like an Oompa Loompa because of her carrot snacking habit. It was pretty funny, though it doesn't seem to have had any deleterious effect on her health.

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#204

Post by arielby »

mikeyouse wrote: post #170
gwern wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's exhausting and completely unproductive. And completely accurate. You know what's more exhausting than seeing someone point out that correlation!=causation? Being whiplashed by a dozen different studies, or correlation after correlation failing when subjected to a randomized test. In this case, all you have to do is look at how they tried to defend against the universal healthy user bias (you know, the same thi…

> In this case, all you have to do is look at how they tried to defend against the universal healthy user bias (you know, the same thing that led to such epic fails as hormone therapy?), and see that all they did was adjust for weight and some self-reports. Bzzt. They actually adjusted for age, smoking (never, former, current), pack-years of smoking, energy intake using the USDA's HEI, alcohol intake, physical activi…

These adjustments look so impressive... not.

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#205

Post by keypusher »

tsotha wrote: post #117
hughes wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even at the workplace, many offices offer unlimited free soda as a perk. I almost never touch the stuff and would love to have access to healthier options. I haven't seen a single job posting featuring regularly stocked fresh fruit as an incentive.

>Even at the workplace, many offices offer unlimited free soda as a perk. Is that still true? I know Microsoft did it in the early years, but that was a long time ago.

Yes. Free soda at work is still common at IT workplaces, my office has an entire fridge which is just for canned soda and gets restocked weekly.

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#206

Post by kalleboo »

nkozyra wrote: post #81
wiredfool wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what would happen with half fruit juice, half carbonated water.

Given that the effects were not seen in diet soda, it's fair to discount the possibility that carbonation plays a role. Since fruit juice has a mild lengthening effect, it might be minimally positive.

The effect were also not seen in sweetened non-carbonated beverages, so it must be some interaction between the sweetening and the carbonation.

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#207

Post by NeverEnough »

mikeyouse wrote: post #141
Scientist007 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that most published medical research findings are false, their scepticism is well founded. Your confidence, to the contrary, may be borne of ignorance. http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fj...

> Given that most published medical research findings are false, their scepticism is well founded. Ugh. Another blanket statement that in no way reflects the actual paper in question. From your own source he recommends larger studies, cross-team work clear pre-trial hypotheses, and study-registration. Guess what? This n=5,300 study was performed by researchers at UCSF, Stanford, Berkeley, and Michigan, they published…

are you arguing that given a study that turned out to be false, a layman should be able to spot the error in methodology?

I don't think that's the case at all. It isn't a black and white issue, and I certainly don't feel it has been conclusively shown that if I start drinking drinks that are BOTH fizzy and sugary tomorrow, it will result in my telomeres shortening at an unusually high rate as the article claims. Is that really anti science? I don't think so.

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#208

Post by kalleboo »

ssmoot wrote: post #35
ep103 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 t…

I could be wrong, but I thought Coke Zero was just the name for Diet Coke with Sucralose instead of Aspartame.

They seem to have gone back and forth, and more it varies by country.

My experience in Sweden was that first they with big fanfare changed Coke Light (what they call Diet coke outside of English-speaking countries) to Sucralose, then introduced Coke Zero, which used Sucralose and silently changed Coke Light back to Aspartame, and then at some point silently also changed Coke Zero to Aspartame.

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#209

Post by ck2 »

Wait is this the smoking gun to corn syrup?

Because "sugar sweetened sodas" don't exist or are rare, at least not in the USA. They are actually corn-syrup sweetened.

Especially since real sugar filled fruit juices did not have the same effect nor diet soda with no corn-syrup.

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#210

Post by phaemon »

bluecalm wrote: post #120
aragot wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Water? Like out of the toilet!? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/quotes?item=qt1722899

Seriously though, some of the descriptions of culture of drinking soda in this thread make me think of that movie. For last 15 years I had soda maybe 10 times and it was usually like few sips. I just can't phantom a world where soda is what you drink when you are a thirsty or to meals. I don't remember people I eat out with ordering soda to their meals either. It's usually water, tea, coffee, sometimes fruit juice.

OT, but:

> I just can't phantom a world

I think you mean 'fathom' here. It uses the metaphor of something being too deep to measure.

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