Food serves as fuel for the human body. However, as we continue to learn about links between health and nutrition, we begin to understand that some fuel works wonders while other food sources can cause pathogenesis. Here we present a look at how excess sugar consumption can not only lead to a myriad of health conditions, but may actually accelerate the human aging process.
Can We Stop the Clock?
So many products on the market today, from cosmetics and sera to supplements such as resveratrol, offer the promise of keeping us looking and feeling more youthful. As a society, we tend to buy into this premise, always searching for that elusive Fountain of Youth. Do any of these products deliver on their promises? Often this depends upon the individual. However, it seems that one universal truth points us in the opposite direction:added sugars in foods we regularly consume may accelerate the rate at which we our bodies age.
Dr. Andrew Nish of the UnityPoint Health – John Stoddard Cancer Center shares the following: “Aging is part of growing older, but it’s accelerated by sugar. At the end of each strand of our DNA is a little cap, called a telomere. It protects our DNA from damage. Every time our DNA is read and duplicated, those telomeres shorten. While our bodies normally replace telomeres, sugar quickens that shortening and advances the aging process.”
Regardless of one’s age, eliminating sugar from the daily diet will always prove prudent, as sugars just increase the risk for developing chronic diseases such as diabetes, stroke, dementia and even some cancers. The average adult acquires 30-40% of sugar consumption from soda, fruit juices and/or sports drinks. Added to the fact that ~80% of processed foods contain sugar, the typical American diet itself seems a recipe for potential harm.
A Different Concept of Time
Much like counting the rings after chopping down a tree to determine its age, scientists employ the concept of epigenetic clocks to predict and assess a human’s biological age. Purely based upon mathematical algorithms, epigenetic clocks look at combinations of methylation values at particular points on the human genome that change with age.
Purely a concept at this point in time, epigenetic clocks tap into critical biological processes involved in aging. When assessing the difference between chronological age and biological age, scientists have coined the term EpiAge acceleration. After considerable research into the epidemiology of this idea, experts now point to such hallmarks as various pathological states, mental health, lifestyles and environmental factors when trying to identify reasons for this discrepancy. Although epigenetic aging functions apart from normal cellular senescence, it does align with mitochondrial activity.
Methylation, Sugars and True Cellular Aging
Epigenetic clocks rely upon many parameters to predict biological age. The aforementioned DNA methylation that accumulates over time reflects the negative effects that social, behavioral, and environmental forces have on the body. As a result of these alterations, the body begins to reveal the characteristic pathologies associated with aging. Sadly, sugar ranks very highly in this list of contributors.
One unique study followed subjects ages 9-19 years an entire decade, followed by a second study when the same subjects reached the ages of 36-46 years. During these time frames, volunteers shared their 3-day food diaries; the researchers looked closely at the following micronutrients contained within the subjects’ diets:
- vitamin A
- vitamin E
- vitamin C
- folate
- vitamin B12
- zinc
- selenium
- magnesium
- fiber
- monounsaturated fatty acids
- isoflavones
- sugar
The study, initially designed to investigate heart and metabolic health, revealed that for each additional gram of sugar consumed per day, the subjects showed an increase of 7 days in their GrimAGE2 score, a second-generation epigenetic clock marker. This means that, regardless of how healthfully one regularly eats, it does not take much sugar to accelerate the rate at which our bodies age. Other research had revealed that meal plans containing greater amounts of antioxidants and anti-inflammatory nutrients, much like a typical Mediterranean diet, actually conferred a positive impact on epigenetic age.
Premature Skin-Related Aging Blamed on Sugar Consumption
Dr. Andrew Nish explains the link between sugar and skin-related signs of aging: “If you put a banana on the counter and unpeel it, what happens in 24-48 hours? It gets brown. The sugars in that banana are reacting with proteins, causing cross-linking and the brown color (browning reaction). The same reaction happens in our bodies. We’re browning from the inside out.”
Collagen and elastin, the compounds responsible for keeping our skin supple and soft, unfortunately fall prey to sugar; overconsumption of sugar promotes the cross-linking of collagen, causing skin to stiffen and suffer a loss of elasticity.
We can easily recognize the sign of sugar taking its toll on our skin:
- Facial breakouts/adult acne
- Wrinkles
- Sagging skin around the neck and chin
- Appearance of dark spots
- Diminished healing of cuts and scrapes
Pay Attention to the Signs
Regular bathroom habits can alert us when we have consumed sufficient quantities of fiber in our daily diets. The color of urine, too, can inform us of whether or not we have hydrated properly. But how can we determine if we have consumed “too much” sugar? Below we list a few of the most common ways in which our bodies reveal excess sugar consumption:
- Weight gain. Items laden with sugar, both food sources and beverages, fall into the category of “empty calories”: high caloric punch with little if any nutritional value. Too many empty calories can lead to weight gain.
- Acne breakouts. Blood sugar spikes cause both inflammation and the secretion of sebum, an oily substance in the skin. This combined action often manifests itself in the appearance of skin breakouts.
- Mood swings and irritability. Diets laden with sugar can increase the risk of mood disorders like anxiety and depression.
- Craving more sugar. Eating sugar activates our body’s reward circuit. Blood sugar spikes, and the body releases insulin as a countermeasure. If the insulin brings blood sugar levels down too low, fatigue sets in, leading many individuals to reach for additional sugary snacks in an effort to bring on that energetic feeling. This establishes a hard-to-break pattern.
- Tossing and turning at night. A diet high in sugar may lead to disruptive sleep, which in turn promotes sugar cravings.
According to Dr. Elissa Epel, Vice Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at University of California – San Francisco, “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, likely one of the ways that excessive sugar intake limits longevity.”
Understanding Added Sugars
How does the sugar found in fresh fruits vary from the harmful sugar-related substances added to so many of today’s foods? Sugars derived from natural sources not only serve as an energy source; they also act as a delivery system for the plethora of nutrients found in fresh fruit, vegetables and unprocessed grain products, facilitating their actions within the body. The substances for which we must watch out get added in processed food production to extend shelf life and enhance flavor. You might see such names as fructose, sucrose, maltose, cane sugar, agave and dextrose once you begin reading product labels. None of these can we consider as “natural”.
We might choose to think of added sugars in the same way we view alcoholic products: the extent of damage caused to the body by ingesting such foods/beverages aligns directly with the amount consumed. While each gram of sugar and/or alcohol does in fact interact with bodily mechanisms, the cumulative effect over the course of a lifetime causes the impactful hit.
Free Radicals
Upon ingestion/digestion, sugar molecules bind to proteins and lipids, forming advanced glycation end-products, or AGEs. Each time glucose or fructose binds to a protein, it leaves a free oxygen radical in its wake. While a diet high in antioxidants strives to undo this action, sometimes the body manufactures radicals faster than it can repair them. This leads to cell damage and apoptosis (cell death). Fructose in particular accelerates this reaction by a factor of 7; in fact, fructose elicits 100x the quantity of free radicals when compared to glucose. With every occurrence, the age process accelerates.
Beyond Diabetes and Obesity
Many individuals tend to drift and settle into a more sedentary lifestyle pattern with age, due to a variety of reasons. This partially explains the prevalence of type 2 diabetes and obesity observed in an older adult demographic. Add excess sugar consumption to the mix, and even more pathogenesis can develop.
Excess consumption of sugar can elevate inflammation and weaken the blood-brain barrier, inviting cognitive decline. According to Dr. Puja Agarwal, assistant professor of Internal Medicine at the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center and lead author of a research study on this topic, “People at highest risk (of dementia) got 32% of their calories from sugar versus the low group consuming only 17% of calories from sugar.” Fructose and sucrose emerged as the worst culprits in this particular study.
Sugar Sours Menopausal Symptoms
Diminished circulating levels of estrogen and progesterone typically herald the coming of menopause. Females in this age demographic often report sugar highs and lows during their more symptomatic periods; now scientists find that a link may exist between poorly controlled blood sugar levels and hot flashes.
The Impaired Glucose Delivery Model of Vasomotor Symptoms suggests that aberrations in glucose delivery to the brain could lead to vasomotor symptoms, including hot flashes. The regulation of brain glucose comprises many components involving glucose supply. Within the central component, three coupling processes (neurometabolic, neurovascular, and neurobarrier) work in consort to maintain the glucose levels that provide for the metabolic functioning of neurons.
Given that the brain can only sustain a 2-minute supply of glucose, the body relies upon neuronal activation to stimulate neurobarrier coupling, thereby providing the energy needed to sustain activation. Glucose transporter 1 (GLUT 1), the carrier protein in the plasma membranes of brain endothelial cells which serve to move glucose molecules into the brain, depends to a significant extent upon estrogen. Therefore, when estrogen levels decrease during menopause, the responsiveness of GLUT 1 production to the demands of increased glucose transport needs gets constrained. Scientists view hot flashes as a counter-regulatory neurovascular response, resulting in increased blood flow to facilitate delivery of glucose and oxygen to meet the body’s metabolic needs associated with neuronal activation. While hot flashes complicate a menopausal woman’s life, we now understand the purpose they serve.
In both controlled and observational studies, the frequency of hot flashes correlated directly to dietary intake. As expected, excessive sugar consumption resulted in insulin spikes; however, during the dramatic drops in blood sugar that always follow, the number of hot flashes increased. Dr. Elissa Epel adds, “It’s reasonable to conclude that reducing sugar may help reduce hot flashes for some individuals, but it has not been sufficiently tested.” Clearly, more research on this aspect of menopause will receive future attention.
We have illustrated the various ways in which overconsumption of added sugars can lead to an array of health problems. Clearly, this represents a societal issue over which we have a good deal of control. For ourselves as well as our clients, modeling diets replete with antioxidant/anti-inflammatory and pro-epigenetic health nutrients, while simultaneously emphasizing low added sugar consumption, may help to slow cellular aging relative to chronological age. Even if the changes in lifespan seem incremental, adhering to as natural a meal plan as possible will always pave the way to better health.
References
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2765999/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36516495/
https://www.unitypoint.org/news-and-articles/the-link-between-sugar-and-aging
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2821611?resultClick=1#google_vignette
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41576-024-00807-w
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11287388/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20620757/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5302422/
https://www.livescience.com/health/ageing/eating-too-much-sugar-may-accelerate-cellular-aging
https://hippocrateswellness.org/about-us/the-science/studies/sugar-and-aging/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-022-00220-0?fromPaywallRec=true
