Fizzy drinks can speed up aging process as much as smoking, says new study
You eat healthy, you exercise, you don't smoke. But you've got a serious addiction to sugary, fizzy drinks.
That, according to a new study, is a big problem.
Sugary, fizzy drinks are already related to a whole host of health problems, including diabetes, obesity and heart attacks.
Now, researchers have found a link between a daily intake of carbonated drinks and the rate at which your body ages, reports Time.
They found that a daily 237ml serving of a sugary, fizzy drink (a regular drink can is 330ml) corresponds to 1.9 extra years of aging.
A 591ml daily serving (slightly less than two cans), that could lead to 4.6 more years of aging, the exact same effect that smoking has.
The research
To find the link between sugar-filled fizzy drinks and aging, Elissa Epel, a professor of psychiatry at University of California San Francisco, studied the length of telemores, the caps at the end of chromosomes, which can provide clues to lifespan and stress level.
Smoking has been associated with shorter telemores length.
Epel and her team studied data from 5,309 adults in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in the US.
Diet sodas okay
The good news?
You can drink diet sodas, as it does not have the same effect as sugary fizzy drinks.
Source: Time
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