SUGARED SODA CONSUMPTION , CELL AGING ASSOCIATED
Sugar-sweetened soda
consumption might promote disease independently from its role in obesity,
according to UC San Francisco researchers who found in a new study that
drinking sugary drinks was associated with cell aging.
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 online October 16, 2014
in the American Journal of Public Health.
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 Elissa Epel, PhD, professor
of psychiatry at UCSF and senior author of the study.
"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
cautioned that they only compared telomere length and sugar-sweetened soda
consumption for each participant at a single time point, and that an
association does not demonstrate causation. 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.
Additional study
authors include, from UCSF, Nancy E. Adler, PhD, professor of psychiatry and
director of the Center for Health and Community, and Jue Lin, PhD, an associate
researcher with Blackburn's lab; from UC Berkeley, Barbara A. Laraia, PhD,
director of public health nutrition; from the University of Michigan, Belinda
Needham, PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology; and from Stanford
University, David H. Rehkopf, ScD, assistant professor of medicine.
Major funding for
the study was provided by the National Institutes of Health. Lin is a
shareholder of Telomere Diagnostics, Inc.
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