There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that consumption of sugar has a direct effect on how young or old you look for your age. Scientists from the Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands and manufacturing giant Unilever in the UK conducted a test involving 600 men and women aged between 50 and 70. They measured their blood sugar levels and then showed their photographs to a panel of 60 assessors, who were asked to estimate how old each test subject looked.
After taking into account whether the test subjects smoked (which is one of the major causes of ageing – give it up now!) the test showed that those with higher blood sugar levels were estimated to look older than those with lower blood sugar levels.
Sugar itself is not the ageing agent, it’s the way the body processes the sugar that causes the problems. Chow down a cream cake or chocolate chip cookie and your body converts that sugar to glucose, the main source of fuel for your body.
The sugar attaches itself to proteins in the body, such as the collagen and elastin in the skin and produces harmful molecules called ‘advanced glycation end products’.
Collagen bulks out the skin to give it a younger, more plump look, while elastin gives the skin ‘recoil’ – it’s ability to return to its original state when you frown or pinch yourself. These advanced glycation end products effect both these characteristics of skin by making skin proteins more rigid, which in turn means the skin loses its youthful plumpness and wrinkles form more easily.
That’s not the only negative effect sugar has on skin proteins. There are three different types of collagen in your skin (type one, two and three) and you need a combination of all three to keep it healthy, however sugar encourages type three collagen to morph into the more brittle type one making the skin appear thinner, more wrinkled and more susceptible to environmental and UV damage.
How much you could be effected by this glycation process depends on your diet, your age, level of fitness and metabolism. If you are a 25-year-old who exercises regularly, your body will tolerate a higher level of glycation before damage occurs than a 50-year-old who vegetates in front of the TV every night.
The good news is that if you start restricting your intake of sugar today, the beneficial results, such as not having such dry skin, can show quite quickly, perhaps within days. To begin your road to recovery, avoid all the obvious sweet and tempting culprits such as cakes, cookies, candy and sweet breakfast cereals. Cut out sugary drinks and reduce your intake of high sugar alcoholic drinks such as beer. Try replacing your regular pint or bottle of beer with a glass of red wine, which is not so sugar-rich.
Refined carbohydrates found in products like white bread and white rice, which have a high glycemic index because the carbohydrates within are quickly converted by the body into glucose. Replace them with brown rice, wholemeal pasta and wholemeal bread.
Also keep an eye out for hidden sugars found in cooking sauces, condiments like tomato ketchup and canned foods like baked beans. When you next go shopping, remember to read ingredients labels because sugar can be hidden in the most unlikely of food stuffs! In all, sugar should make up less than ten percent of your total diet but don’t be too hard on yourself. The odd treat every now and again is unlikely to do any lasting damage.
Is Calorie Restriction the Real Fountain of Youth?
A more obvious side effect of eating too much sugar is weight gain. But even if you don’t gain weight easily, there is another negative effect of sugar to watch out for: Recent research shows a relationship between lower-calorie diets and longer life spans.
For example, mice fed with half the calories they usually eat were observed to live 40 percent longer than normal while studies carried out on yeast cells, which age in much the same way as human cells, showed that their lifespan extended when glucose was restricted in their diet.
Other studies around the world have revealed that an increase in consumption of sugar also has a profound effects on your potential to develop ‘old age’ diseases such as Alzheimer’s and cancer.
It appears that high blood glucose levels lead to a decreased level of brain activity in the hippocampus. Since the hippocampus is important for memory and learning, a decrease in brain activity here can make Alzheimer’s more pronounced. It’s important to note that many patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s have damage to the hippocampus region of their brain.
Research conducted at the University of Alabama in the US revealed a possible link between restricted glucose in the diet and both longer cell life and the behaviour of cancers. To make this discovery, researchers fed reduced levels of glucose to laboratory-grown human lung cells and cells that were at the early stages of cancer formation.
The cell’s ability to grow, divide and survive was monitored over a number of weeks and researchers found that normal cells given less glucose lived longer than expected while the cells in danger of turning cancerous died before developing into full-blown cancer.
How many calories should you cut from your diet to enjoy these benefits? A study, in the June 2008 issue of Rejuvenation Research, found that cutting approximately 300 to 500 calories per day from your diet had a similar biological anti-ageing effect in humans as it did on mice and rats.
Here’s a simple and, in the author’s opinion, easy way you can restrict the amount of calories you take in on a daily basis. Make yourself a large bowl of oatmeal/porridge in the morning for breakfast. Use about 1 cup of oats and use semi-skimmed or skimmed cow’s milk or plant-based milks such as soy and almond. If you find porridge somewhat bland in taste, try adding mixed nuts, dried fruit or cocoa powder to the mix.
I have personally found that this keeps me feeling full and satisfied right through the day, the hunger pangs only kicking in around late afternoon. Oats provide a good source of slow release energy to keep you going throughout the day without having to snack or eat lunch.
Your body does need some sugar for energy but, as you have seen, too much may age your body in unexpected ways.
References and acknowledgments: Hegsted DM. 1986 Calcium and osteoporosis. J Nutr. 116: 2316-9.
Frank Hu et al. 1999. Dietary saturated fats and their food sources in relation to the risk of coronary heart disease in women. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 70: 1001-1008.
Cadogan J, Eastell R, Jones N, Barker ME. 1997. Milk intake and bone mineral acquisition in adolescent girls: randomized, controlled intervention trial. BMJ. 315:1255-69.
Karjalainen J, Martin JM, Knip M, et al. 1992. A bovine albumin peptide as a possible trigger of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. N Engl J Med. 327:302-7.
Nicholson AS, Sklar M, Barnard ND, et al. 1999. Toward improved management of NIDDM: A randomized, controlled, pilot intervention using a low-fat, vegetarian diet. Prev Med Aug;29 (2):87-91.
Photo by Nikolaos Dimou: https://www.pexels.com/photo/clear-condiment-shaker-with-brown-sugar-cubes-near-gray-teacup-986739/
