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• Posted July 29, 2024

Avoiding One Nutrient Can Keep Your Cells Young

Added sugar can cause your cells to prematurely age, a new study warns.

Each gram of added sugar is associated with an increase in a person’s cellular age, even when they eat healthy otherwise, researchers found.

On the other hand, a diet rich in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and anti-inflammatory nutrients can help a person have a younger biological age on a cellular level, results show.

Overall, the better a person eats, the younger their cells look, the study concluded.

“We knew that high levels of added sugars are linked to worsened metabolic health and early disease, possibly more than any other dietary factor,” said researcher Elissa Epel, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

“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,” Epel added in a UCSF news release.

For the study, researchers analyzed food records for 342 Northern California women with an average age of 39.

The research team then compared their diets with their “epigenetic clock,” using a saliva test that can estimate a person’s biological age as compared to their calendar age.

On average, women in the study consumed an average 61 grams of added sugar daily, although the range was large between individuals, running from nearly 3 grams to 316 grams of extra sugars.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends adults consume no more than 50 grams of added sugar per day, researchers noted. A bar of milk chocolate has about 25 grams of added sugar, and a 12-ounce can of cola about 39 grams.

Examining sugar intake separately, the researchers found that consuming foods with added sugar was linked with accelerated biological aging, even if a diet was otherwise healthy.

“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,” said co-senior study author Barbara Laraia, a UC Berkeley professor of food, nutrition and population health.

“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,” Laraia added.  

Overall, a Mediterranean-style eating pattern had the strongest link with younger cellular age, researchers found.

In general, that diet focuses on fresh fruits and vegetables; nuts, beans and whole grains; olive oil as a principal source of fat, rather than butter or margarine; fish and seafood; and limited consumption of red meat, processed foods and sugary sweets.

The new study was published July 29 in the journal JAMA Network Open.

“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,” said lead researcher Dorothy Chiu, a postdoctoral scholar at UCSF's Osher Center for Integrative Health. “From a lifestyle medicine standpoint, it is empowering to see how heeding these recommendations may promote a younger cellular age relative to chronological age."

More information

The National Institute on Aging has more about the epigenetics of aging.

SOURCE: University of California, San Francisco, news release, July 29, 2024