<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><item><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></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pc2g4d</author><text>Fruit juice may be good for your telomeres, but there are plenty of other reasons to be suspicious of it---&amp;quot;bro-science&amp;quot; it is not. For example, Google &amp;quot;fruit juice and obesity&amp;quot; or see &lt;a href=&quot;http://blogs.plos.org/obesitypanacea/2012/03/09/shout-it-from-the-rooftops-juice-is-not-natural/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;blogs.plos.org&amp;#x2F;obesitypanacea&amp;#x2F;2012&amp;#x2F;03&amp;#x2F;09&amp;#x2F;shout-it-fro...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;And besides, who says a &amp;quot;bro&amp;quot; can&amp;#x27;t science? ;)</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><item><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></item></parent_chain><comment><author>danielki</author><text>Did they describe how they controlled for behavioral habits? It seems like, as a group, the type of people who would drink large amounts of sugary soda would be less likely to make healthy behavioral choices in other aspects of their life, compared to people who drink fruit juice or diet soda. This could also explain the disparity between soda and non-carbonated sugar-sweetened beverages&lt;p&gt;This study doesn&amp;#x27;t seem to show that soda ages you (as the article states), but instead that sugary soda consumption indicates a tendency towards other activities&amp;#x2F;habits that may prematurely age you.</text></comment>