<story><title>Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking</title><url>http://time.com/3513875/soda-may-age-you-as-much-as-smoking/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>mikeyouse</author><text>The key results from the paper:&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;    After adjustment for sociodemographic and health-related
    characteristics, sugar-sweetened soda consumption was 
    associated with shorter telomeres (b = –0.010; 95% 
    confidence interval [CI] = −0.020, −0.001; P = .04).
    Consumption of 100% fruit juice was marginally associated
    with longer telomeres (b = 0.016; 95% CI = −0.000, 0.033;
    P = .05). No significant associations were observed between
    consumption of diet sodas or noncarbonated SSBs and 
    telomere length.
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
Shortened telomeres are one way to measure genetic &amp;#x27;age&amp;#x27;. So they saw &amp;#x27;aging&amp;#x27; with sugar-sweetened soda, the opposite with fruit juice, and no significant difference with diet sodas or non-carbonated sugary sodas.&lt;p&gt;The study was pretty substantial with ~5,300 participants with no history of cardiovascular disease or diabetes. It&amp;#x27;s nice to have another datapoint against some of the bro-sciencey &amp;quot;Fruit juice has as much sugar as soda&amp;quot; arguments.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Late Edit:&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#x27;s a pretty good summary of telomere aging:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/chromosomes/telomeres/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;learn.genetics.utah.edu&amp;#x2F;content&amp;#x2F;chromosomes&amp;#x2F;telomeres...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking</title><url>http://time.com/3513875/soda-may-age-you-as-much-as-smoking/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>nilkn</author><text>Not to mention it can cause diabetes and it&amp;#x27;s horrible for your teeth. For me, it also caused acne. Soda&amp;#x27;s really, really bad for you, and I think at this point it would be viewed the same way that smoking is viewed if it weren&amp;#x27;t for the fact that soda affects only the consumer whereas cigarettes produce second-hand smoke and a suffocating odor that fills the room.&lt;p&gt;Maybe 2050&amp;#x27;s Mad Men will shock its viewers with how office workers in 2000 drank soda &lt;i&gt;in the office&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;p&gt;(This is coming from someone who used to drink soda on a daily basis. I learned to stop when I had to get a crown on a molar in my early 20s.)</text></comment>