Drinking soda is really f***ing bad for you. UCSF study reveals how soda speeds up cell aging

Like we need any more reasons to stay away from soft drinks. Well here is some more…
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco discovered that people who drank more sugar-sweetened beverages shortened their life span by up to four years. The researchers used a sample of 5300 healthy adults.
Dr. Elissa Epel worked on the study for 5 years and found that regular consumption of fizzy drinks accelerates cellular ageing of tissues. People who enjoy daily carbonated sodas experience DNA changes which can lead to a whole host of diseases, cancers and diabetes.

“We think we can get away with drinking lots of soda as long as we are not gaining weight, but this suggests that there is an invisible pathway that leads to accelerated aging, regardless of weight,” said Dr. Epel.
Epel’s team discovered that in people who drank more sugar-sweetened beverages, the ends of their chromosomes, known as telomeres, were shorter.
The shorter the telomere, the less a cell can regenerate thus aging the body, and raising the risk of disease and early death.
“This finding is alarming because it suggest that soda may be aging us, in ways we are not even aware of,” said Dr. Epel.
Researchers found no link in cell ageing, when drinking diet sodas and fruit juices.

No surprise that the American Beverage Association declined an interview regarding the study, but still insists that the researchers fails to find a “conclusive” link between soda and cell ageing.
Think again before grabbing that BIG GULP.

References:
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2014/10/18/ucsf-study-links-soda-to-premature-aging-disease-early-death/