Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, have found a link between a diet rich in vitamins and minerals, especially one low in sugar, and a younger biological age at the cellular level.
Scientists looked at how three different measures of healthy eating affected the way people ate and found that the better people ate, the younger their cells looked. Even when people ate healthy diets, every gram of added sugar they consumed was linked to an increase in their epigenetic age.
“The diets we examined are consistent with current recommendations for disease prevention and health promotion, and they highlight the effectiveness of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory nutrients in particular,” said Dr. Dorothy Chiu, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, and first author of the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
“From a lifestyle medicine perspective, it is interesting to see how responding to these recommendations may lead to a younger cellular age compared to chronological age,” she added.
The current study is one of the first to show a link between added sugar and epigenetic aging, and the first to examine this association in a heterogeneous group of middle-aged, cross-sectional American women. Most previous studies on the subject have looked at single-group older participants.
“The study helps deepen our understanding of why sugar is so bad for our health,” said study co-author Dr. Elissa Epple, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco.
“We knew that high levels of added sugar were associated with poor metabolic health and early disease, perhaps more than any other dietary factor,” Epple said. “We now know that accelerated epigenetic aging underlies this relationship, and this is likely one of many ways that excessive sugar intake limits healthy lifespan.”
The women in the study reported consuming an average of 61.5 grams of added sugar per day. A piece of milk chocolate contains about 25 grams of added sugar, while a can of sweetened beverage contains about 39 grams. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends that adults consume no more than 50 grams of added sugar per day.
Nutrient-based approach
In the study, researchers analyzed the food records of 342 women with an average age of 39 from Northern California. They then compared their diets to measures of the epigenetic clock, which were extracted from saliva samples.
The researchers compared the women’s diets to a Mediterranean-style diet rich in anti-inflammatory foods and antioxidants and then to a diet linked to a lower risk of chronic disease.
Finally, the researchers scored the women’s diets against a scale they created based on nutrients (not foods) that have been linked to antioxidant or anti-inflammatory processes and DNA maintenance and repair. These include vitamins A, C, B12, and E, folate, selenium, magnesium, dietary fiber, and isoflavones.
Adherence to any of the diets was significantly associated with decreased epigenetic age, with the Mediterranean diet having the strongest association.
The researchers examined sugar intake separately and found that eating foods with added sugar was associated with accelerated biological aging, even in the presence of a healthy diet.
“Given that epigenetic patterns appear to be reversible, eliminating 10 grams of added sugar per day could set the biological clock back by 2.4 months, if sustained over time,” said Barbara Laria, co-lead researcher of the study.
“Focusing on foods that are high in essential nutrients and low in added sugars may be a new way to help motivate people to eat well for a longer life,” added Larrea, a professor at the University of California.
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