Whatever Your Age, You Can Slow Your Aging
Researchers and medical professionals know there is one thing you can do, starting today that will slow your body’s aging process.
Stop eating added sugar.
Sugar is a primary driver of the aging reaction. The more sugar you eat, the quicker aging will occur. As you get older, the health of your cells declines, but if you consume a lot of sugar, they go decline seven times faster.
Where Added Sugar is Found
Much of the sugar we eat doesn’t come from ice cream and cake. It comes from everyday foods that we don’t associate with sweetness. Here’s a (partial) list of hidden sugar sources, according to the USA Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
Condiments, such as tomato ketchup and salad dressings
Sauces, including pasta sauces, barbecue sauce
Flavored yogurt, especially low-fat yogurt
Cereals, including granola, instant oatmeal, and breakfast cereals
Nut butters, such as peanut butter
Eating a lot of sugar causes your body to age at seven times its natural rate.
We all know that sugar is bad for your teeth and your waistline, and that it plays a role in the development of diabetes. But that’s just the beginning of the story. In a study published in July 2024, researchers looked at 342 middle-aged women and found the cells, tissues and overall systems of those who followed a diet low in added sugar were biologically younger than their actual age. But for each additional gram of added sugar people ate each day, they were about seven days older in their biological age — regardless of how healthy their diet was otherwise.
For example, people who normally consumed 120 grams of sugar daily, were about 840 days older biologically, than they were chronologically.
Researchers knew that high levels of added sugars are linked to worsened metabolic health and early disease, possibly more than any other dietary factor. Now they know that accelerated epigenetic aging is underlying this relationship, and this is likely one of many ways that excessive sugar intake limits healthy longevity.
‘Epigenetic aging’ refers to how your body ages based on external factors beyond just the calendar and the natural occurrences that come with it. Stress, pollution, a lack of exercise and poor diet are all factors in epigenetic aging. But added sugar may be unique among these factors, an aging superpower. And the less you have of it in your life, the better.
The sugars that occur naturally in fruits, vegetables, grains and dairy are essential to a healthy diet, providing energy and acting as a delivery device for the thousands of nutrients in these foods. Indeed, they’ve been found to reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and even some cancers.
Added sugars, on the other hand, are the compounds that humans put into their food -from the spoonful of sugar in your coffee to the factory-made sweeteners manufacturers add to processed foods to increase flavor and extend shelf life. These are the sugars that are harmful and accelerate aging. On food labels, they are often the ingredients ending in “ose,” such as high-fructose corn syrup, sucrose, dextrose and maltose, among others. “Natural” sweeteners can have the same age-promoting effects: Cane sugar is almost entirely sucrose. Agave is mostly fructose.
Fructose may be more harmful than other sugar molecules because it is primarily metabolized by the liver, where it is readily converted into fat; in excessive amounts, it leads to increased fat accumulation and scarring in the liver. Manufacturers are now required to document added sugars on food labels, so there’s an obvious tip-off if the product contains harmful sugar.
Think of added sugars the way you’d think of alcohol: The extent of damage to your body is proportionate to the amount you consume, what scientists call “dose dependent.” Every gram of sugar interacts with your body in some way, but it’s the cumulative impact that causes the most damage and drives accelerated aging.
1 teaspoon of sugar = 4.2 grams/5cc
Can of soda or ice tea = 35-40 grams/350ml
Coffee Frappuccino = 55-60 grams/470ml
Café Latte = 18 grams/470ml
Cup of yogurt = 20-30 grams/235ml
Breakfast cereal = 10-20 grams
1 Granola bar = 8-10 grams
1 Cake slice = 20-25 grams
Marinara sauce per serving = 10-12 grams
Tomato Ketchup = 4 grams/15cc
BBQ Sauce = 12 grams /30cc
Red Bull Energy drink = 50 grams/470ml
Monster Energy drink = 57 grams/500ml
JAXS-2 Energy drink = 0 grams
What sugar really does to your body
When sugar molecules bind to proteins and lipids in the body, they form harmful compounds called advanced glycation end products (AGEs). These AGEs accumulate in tissues, reducing their plasticity and flexibility, increasing inflammation, and creating oxidative stress in cells — all of which produce diseases. In blood vessels and arteries, they can increase the risk In the kidneys, they can contribute to insulin resistance, and in the skin, they can deplete collagen and add to the appearance of aging.
In the kidneys, they can contribute to insulin resistance, and in the skin, they can deplete collagen and add to the appearance of aging. They affect every tissue in a negative way and across your entire lifespan, which is why we try to emphasize healthy habits in childhood. By the time you get older, you see the impact of these dietary choices, at a time when you have less resilience.
This is where fructose does its worst damage. Every time glucose or fructose binds to a protein, you get an oxygen radical. If your body is making radicals faster than you can quench them, your cells undergo damage, and they eventually die. Fructose makes the reaction occur seven times faster and generates 100 times the number of oxygen radicals as glucose. Every time this process occurs, you age faster.
Sugar places an increased burden on an already aging body. Getting older puts us at greater risk for disease, but sugar speeds and multiplies the effect of aging on your cells.
1. Raises dementia risk
Excessive amounts of sugar can increase inflammation and weaken the blood-brain barrier, which can trigger cognitive decline, Serra says. In one study, researchers found that in older adults (average age 79), consuming more sugar may double the risk of developing dementia later in life. People at highest risk got 32 percent of their calories from sugar versus the low group consuming only 17 percent of calories from sugar. Another recent study tells us consuming higher sugar or calories from sugar may impact risk for dementia.
2. Makes your belly bigger
When you eat excess sugar, your liver metabolizes the fructose compound and converts it to fat, which accumulates in the liver. You gain weight when your liver stores excess fat instead of burning it off as energy. Fat accumulation can lead to higher cholesterol, insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease.
3. Hampers your nutritional status
As we get older, our need for calories declines, so to maintain the same body weight we need to eat less. Consuming a diet high in sugar makes it challenging to also include enough healthy foods so that we balance calorie needs and meet our nutrient needs.
4. Damages your liver
High sugar intake, especially fructose, can lead to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, which is an excessive amount of fat in the liver that is associated with an increased risk of developing liver cancer.
5. Increases your risk of heart disease and stroke
Added sugar can elevate your blood pressure, promote chronic inflammation and increase levels of triglycerides, a type of fat that builds up in the bloodstream and increases your risk of heart disease. Excessive sugar intake damages the arteries and puts stress on the heart.
6. Increases your diabetes risk
Sugar causes rapid spikes in blood sugar levels, which can contribute to insulin resistance, a precursor to type 2 diabetes, and drives other major chronic diseases in older adults. In addition to aging and stress, sugar can wreak havoc on insulin sensitivity and through various pathways accelerate aging in the body’s systems. This is one of the most important metrics of health and aging.
7. Worsens menopause symptoms
Postmenopausal women are more vulnerable to the effects of sugar because they have lower levels of estrogen and progesterone and become more insulin resistant. Some studies show that high sugar levels are also associated with more hot flashes in menopausal women. It may be because they cause spikes in blood sugar and dramatic drops. It’s reasonable to conclude that reducing sugar may help reduce hot flashes for some individuals.
8. Promotes tooth loss
Sugar can foster bacterial growth in the mouth, which, in turn, can produce acid that erodes the enamel on your teeth, causing cavities. Excess sugar can also lead to inflammation of the gums, leading to gum recession and tooth loss.
In conclusion: The occasional sugar indulgence isn’t harmful, but be very selective and only indulge when the option is your all-time favorite. This is a situation where having much less, will give you much more.
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