Sugar may shorten lifespan
Daily sugar consumption has been shown to have significant negative health outcomes. A study at the University of California San Francisco found that drinking a 20-ounce soda on a daily basis was equivalent to 4.6 years of cell aging, the same as smoking cigarettes—and this cell aging has previously been linked with a shorter human lifespan.
Sugar spikes your insulin
The release of more insulin is one of the immediate effects of sugar on the body. Soda is the worst culprit, says Vasanti Malik, ScD, a research scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. ‘Sugars in beverages are absorbed very quickly, which results in rapid increases in blood glucose and insulin,’ she says.
‘Over time this can lead to insulin resistance (in which the body needs more and more insulin to be effective) and place an individual on a pathway to adverse metabolic health.’ Naturally occurring sugars, as in fruit, don’t have the same negative effects because they’re paired with fiber, which helps slow absorption.
