Depending upon your love of sweets along with your willpower, you may or may not remember that back in August, agebuzz highlighted a recent study that connected high added sugar intake with accelerated biological aging. Did that study lead you to better understand what sugar does to your body? Have you tried to lessen or even eliminate sugar from your diet? If you’re interested in aging in a healthier way and supporting your longevity, it’s worth a look at what you can do to crack the sugar code and lower your consumption of what are admittedly completely empty calories in your diet. For a review of what that study found, push away that slice of cake and click here.

First a few facts about sugar consumption. According to scientific data, up to 65% of US adults consume more added sugar on a daily basis than is recommended by Dietary Guidelines. The CDC reports that in 2017–2018, the average daily intake of added sugars was 17 teaspoons for adults aged 20 or older in the US, even though recommended consumption should not exceed about 12 teaspoons a day for a 2000-calorie diet. That’s a significant increase in added sugar in the average American diet, which can lead to all sorts of health problems in addition to accelerated biological aging. An array of health risks, including obesity, inflammation, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, depression, and even some types of cancer can result from excess added sugar consumption. To be clear, “added sugars” are not those that naturally occur in fruits or some vegetables (where other nutrients accompany the intake of sugar) but rather are sugars added to your food when it’s been processed, cooked, or otherwise produced. In fact, recent research has shown that worldwide, the increasing consumption of sugary sodas, especially in places like Sub-Saharan Africa, has led to a significant increase in such diseases as diabetes and heart disease, along with a resulting rise in sugar-linked deaths. Even small amounts of added sugar to your diet can cause large problems for your health. For example, it’s been reported that just a 5% increase in added sugar consumption can lead to a 6% rise in your risk of heart disease and a 10% rise in your risk of stroke.

Not only are added sugars implicated in a whole host of chronic diseases, but we also know from recent studies that high sugar consumption acts to stimulate a kind of “endogenous opioid” in the brain (meaning one generated by your own body), which triggers a feeling of reward in your brain when you eat something sweet. So quitting sugar is not so easy, given that your brain has been conditioned to love sugar for the pleasure it provides. To try to break this cycle of sugar consumption and reward, it becomes important to read nutrition labels to determine how much added sugar you’re including in your diet.  Nutrition experts also suggest you don’t completely go cold turkey but instead take charge of balancing your sweets with more nutrient-filled snacks, such as Greek yogurt, nuts, or fruit. It’s further advised that when hungry, try a non-sugary snack first (something with fiber or protein), to fill you up and blunt any impact from subsequent sugar. For a few “sweet” snacks that nonetheless lower your added sugar consumption, take a look here. 

And what happens if you work hard to eliminate added sugars from your diet? The results are likely to stimulate an array of positive health effects that will have you feeling- and looking- better. Added sugars are known to contribute to skin aging, including wrinkling and loss of elasticity. Reducing or eliminating added sugars can also lead to a rapid lowering of your Type 2 diabetes risk. You’ll also be lowering the presence of chronic inflammation in your body, which is implicated in a host of age-related diseases. And the less sugar you intake, the fewer cravings you will have to consume sugar-sweetened foods, as that pleasure/reward system mentioned above won’t be activated. No one is saying that removing added sugars from your diet will be easy or that setbacks won’t occur (that late-night glass of wine or pastry at brunch might be difficult to resist) but the result will likely leave you feeling more energetic, fighting fewer health problems and even a few pounds lighter. For one woman’s drive to eliminate her added sugars, resist the temptation to indulge and read here.