Reducing sugar for younger biological age

A July 2024 study by the University of California San Francisco looking at healthy eating using an epigenetic clock, a biochemical test approximating health and lifespan, said,

 “The diets we examined align with existing recommendations for preventing disease and promoting health, and they highlight the potency of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory nutrients in particular,”

“From a lifestyle medicine standpoint, it is empowering to see how heeding these recommendations may promote a younger cellular age relative to chronological age.” 
 
“We knew that high levels of added sugars are linked to worsened metabolic health and early disease, possibly more than any other dietary factor … Now we know that accelerated epigenetic aging is underlying this relationship, and this is likely one of many ways that excessive sugar intake limits healthy longevity.” 

The researchers created a measure called the Epigenetic Nutrient Index (ENI) based on nutrients (not foods) that have been linked to anti-oxidative or anti-inflammatory processes and DNA maintenance and repair. These include Vitamins A, C, B12 and E, folate, selenium, magnesium, dietary fiber and isoflavones.’ 

 “Given that epigenetic patterns appear to be reversible, it may be that eliminating 10 grams of added sugar per day is akin to turning back the biological clock by 2.4 months, if sustained over time,”

“Focusing on foods that are high in key nutrients and low in added sugars may be a new way to help motivate people to eat well for longevity.”  

sucrose and high fructose corn syrup and health risks

An August 2021 study by University of California, Davis, said,

• “This is the first dietary intervention study to show that consumption of both sucrose- and high fructose corn-sweetened beverages increase liver fat and decrease insulin sensitivity,” 

• “People often have a skewed perspective of aspartame and give sucrose a pass, but this study suggests that consumers should be equally concerned about both major added sugars in our food supply.”

• “Within the span of two weeks, we observed a significant change in liver fat and insulin sensitivity in the two groups consuming sucrose- or high fructose corn syrup-sweetened beverages,” 

• “That’s concerning because the prevalence of fatty liver [nonalcoholic fatty liver disease] and Type 2 diabetes continues to increase globally.”

• “It’s all physiologically connected, although we’re not sure [in what] direction it goes,” 

• “It’s very likely that the mechanism by which we develop metabolic syndrome goes through liver fat and insulin resistance. An increase in liver fat can be benign for a certain amount of time and for certain people. But it can also progress to associated inflammation in liver cells that causes fibrosis and negatively impacts liver function, which can make an individual more prone to liver cancer.”

Sugar and Brain Development

A March 2021 study by University of Georgia said, 

"Early life sugar increased Parabacteroides [a bacteria] levels, and the higher the levels of Parabacteroides, the worse the animals did in the task," 

"We found that the bacteria alone was sufficient to impair memory in the same way as sugar, but it also impaired other types of memory functions as well."

"We found that rats that consumed sugar in early life had an impaired capacity to discriminate that an object was novel to a specific context, a task the rats that were not given sugar were able to do," 

"Early life sugar consumption seems to selectively impair their hippocampal learning and memory,"

Sugar-sweetened drinks and colorectal cancer

A May 2021 study by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis said,

"Colorectal cancer in younger adults remains relatively rare, but the fact that the rates have been increasing over the past three decades -- and we don't understand why -- is a major public health concern and a priority in cancer prevention," 

"Due to the increase in colorectal cancer at younger ages, the average age of colorectal cancer diagnosis has gone down from 72 years to 66 years. These cancers are more advanced at diagnosis and have different characteristics compared with cancers from older populations.

"Our lab is funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network to identify risk factors, the molecular landscapes, and precision screening strategies for these cancers so that they can be detected earlier and even prevented,”

"In past work, we have shown that poor diet quality was associated with increased risk of early-onset colorectal cancer precursors, but we have not previously examined specific nutrients or foods."

"Despite the small number of cases, there is still a strong signal to suggest that sugar intake, especially in early life, is playing a role down the road in increasing adulthood colorectal cancer risk before age 50,”

"This study, combined with our past work linking obesity and metabolic conditions to a higher risk of early-onset colorectal cancer, suggests that metabolic problems, such as insulin resistance, may play an important role in the development of this cancer in younger adults."

"Given this data, we recommend that people avoid sugar-sweetened beverages and instead choose drinks like milk and coffee without sweeteners,"

The role of added sugar in fat production

A March 2021 study by the University of Zurich found, 

"Eighty grams of sugar daily, which is equivalent to about 0.8 liters of a normal soft drink, boosts fat production in the liver. And the overactive fat production continues for a longer period of time, even if no more sugar is consumed,"

"The body's own fat production in the liver was twice as high in the fructose group as in the glucose group or the control group - and this was still the case more than twelve hours after the last meal or sugar consumption,”