#34 Refined Sugar and Its Effects on Mortality, the Brain, Cancer, Hormones, & More

Hello, everyone. Today I'm going to talk to you about one straightforward thing you can do to dramatically improve your health: cut refined sugar out of your diet. Now, that might be easier said than done, but let's talk about the why first, and then we can talk about the how. And the why is long. It includes things like cancer risk, deteriorating effects on the brain affecting areas involved in emotion and learning and memory, the speed at which we biologically age, and much more. But before we go there, a quick reminder that this podcast, my YouTube channel, email newsletter, and all of the various resources on the web under the FoundMyFitness My Fitness umbrella are brought to you by the support of truly fabulous people like yourself.

You can learn more about supporting the podcast through a straightforward pay-what-you-can subscription, which you can sign up for by going to foundmyfitness.com/crowdsponsor. That's foundmyfitness.com/crowdsponsor. This can be as simple as pitching in to buy my team a figurative cup of coffee once per month. Even otherwise small numbers can add up over time, and this is a great way to say, hey, I like what you're doing and I'd like you to do more of it. It doesn't get more straightforward than that, and it doesn't even have to be a lot. It just takes a community to make it happen. Once again, you can find that at foundmyfitness.com/crowdsponsor. Now let's talk sugar. Sugar occurs naturally in foods like fruit and dairy products.

There may be a place for moderation here, especially with dairy, but that is not what we are especially concerned with today. Instead, refined sugar is what is especially problematic. Refined sugar is extracted from sugarcane or sugar beets and undergoes extensive processing. It is often added to foods such as cookies, cakes, candies, crackers, sugar-sweetened soft drinks, condiments, and many others. Refined sugar intake is a big problem, particularly in the US. Nearly 3/4 of adults in the US get about a 10th of their daily calories from added refined sugar. An amazing 10% get nearly 1/4 of their calories from refined sugar. Although most people are aware of the link between excess refined sugar and type 2 diabetes, few are aware that it is also linked to many different diseases of aging.

Scientists estimate that consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages in 2010 may have contributed to nearly 133,000 deaths from diabetes, 45,000 deaths from cardiovascular disease, and 6,450 deaths from cancer worldwide. Let that sink in. We're not even talking about deaths from smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol. We're not even talking about deaths caused by eating sugar in general. We're talking about more than 140,000 deaths Likely caused by consuming sugar-sweetened beverages alone. Let me give you an idea of the magnitude of effect that sugar consumption can have in terms of sugar-sweetened beverages such as sodas.

One study of more than 1,600 men and women in the United States conducted over a 14-year period showed that adults who drank 12 ounces, roughly one can, of sugar-sweetened beverages such as soda, tea, or lemonade per day had a 46% higher risk of developing Prediabetes compared to those who drank fewer or none. Prediabetes is a condition where a person's blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but aren't high enough to be called type 2 diabetes. But a different study of more than 25,000 people in the UK conducted over a period of 11 years showed that when adults replaced just one sugar-sweetened beverage, such as soda or a sugar-sweetened juice with water or unsweetened coffee or tea per day, their risk of developing type 2 diabetes dropped as much as 25%.

The beneficial health effects of cutting out refined sugar seem to take effect pretty quickly too. In a study where 43 obese children between the ages of 8 and 18 ate a diet with no added sugar for just 9 days, the children's fasting blood sugar levels decreased by 5 points, their insulin levels dropped by a third, and their cholesterol and blood pressure levels improved. Diets high in refined sugar have also been linked to cancer. Studies estimate that nearly one-third of all cancer deaths worldwide may be due to lifestyle and environmental factors, such as low physical activity and diets high in processed foods that contain refined sugar. Here's a sampling of some of the findings from studies linked to refined sugar intake and cancer.

In one study, men who regularly drank sugar-sweetened beverages had a tripled risk of prostate cancer. Similarly, mice that ate a diet high in refined sugar, table sugar, and high fructose corn syrup had a twofold increased risk of developing breast cancer tumors. These findings are probably due to the fact that refined sugar increases DNA damage and inflammation, both of which lead to cancer, as we talked about about in a previous podcast entitled, Does Meat Consumption Cause Cancer? An interesting fact I learned recently is that excess refined sugar appears to cause intestinal cells in the gut to accumulate beta-catenin, a type of oncogene, which then enhances cellular proliferation, a potentially bad thing. Our cells are hardwired to prevent damaged cells from surviving.

This is done through a self-destruct mechanism called apoptosis or programmed cell death. But oncogenes allow damaged cells to bypass the checkpoints that promote cellular death. This allows the cells to become immortal cancer cells. Accumulation of beta-catenin, in this case, as a component of the insulin response induced by excess refined sugar, may just be one more way in which excess refined sugar consumption may tie back to increased cancer risk. Not only is refined sugar associated with higher risk of many diseases, it accelerates the aging process itself. One way researchers gauge the aging process is by studying telomere length, a well-established biomarker or indicator for aging.

Telomeres are distinctive structures made up of short repetitive sequences of DNA located on the end of chromosomes. They form a protective cap, a sort of disposable buffer that gradually shortens with age, that prevents chromosomes from losing genes or sticking to other chromosomes when a cell divides. When telomeres get too short, the cell stops dividing or it dies. Research on telomeres is still relatively new and might provide insights into cellular aging and disease risk. Every year we lose an average of 21 structural units called nucleotides from the ends of our telomeres. In cells that divide more rapidly, such as white blood cells, we lose about 50 to 60 structural units each year.

Scientists think that telomere shortening is not only a biomarker for aging, but might also cause cellular aging. For example, people with a mutation in a specific gene called Werner have telomeres that shorten unusually fast. This causes them to have a disorder called progeria, which is characterized by a premature aging phenotype. The same thing goes for mice. When scientists breed mice to have short telomeres, the mice have a progeria phenotype as well. This can actually be reversed by activating telomerase, an enzyme that can rebuild telomeres.

Researchers have found that adults who drink 12 ounces, roughly a can of soda each day, have much shorter telomeres in their white blood cells, a reduction roughly equivalent to 4.5 years of biological aging, compared to people the same age who don't drink soda. That's pretty alarming. Refined sugar is also linked to another important factor in aging: inflammation. Inflammation is the body's natural response to illness or injury. It's what causes pain, redness, and swelling, even fever. Inflammation is a short-lived protective mechanism that promotes healing. Sometimes this mechanism goes haywire, however, in response to environmental triggers such as poor diet, lack of physical activity, and others. Chronic or long-term inflammation ages us.

It's now believed, in fact, that successful suppression of inflammation through lifestyle may be the most important driver of successful longevity, actually increasing in importance with advancing age. In a study where 29 healthy normal weight young men drank 20 ounces of a sugar-sweetened beverage similar to soda daily for 3 weeks, the men experienced a 60% to 100% increase in a biomarker of inflammation called C-reactive protein. Higher than normal levels of C-reactive protein in the blood are an indication that the body is being stressed either by some acute process such as infection Or a long-term process such as cardiovascular disease. The number of small dense LDL cholesterol particles in the men's blood also increased.

Small dense LDL particles tend to be the most dangerous cholesterol particles because they can't be recycled back to the liver and thus stay around in the bloodstream where they can undergo more inflammatory transformations. An interesting study conducted in fruit flies showed that a diet high in refined sugar in early adulthood inhibits FOXO3, a longevity gene, decreasing the fly's lifespan by 7%. FOXO3 is a master regulator of hundreds of genes that are involved in stress resistance, stem cell production, and autophagy, a type of self-destruct mechanism that maintains healthy cells. Flies aren't the only ones to have a longevity gene. Humans have FOXO3 also. It's very plausible that excess refined sugar inhibits FOXO3 in humans, but for now, more research is needed to confirm this.

People that have a particular variation of FOXO3 that is more active are nearly 3 times more likely to live to be a centenarian. Refined sugar affects the body's hormone production too. In one study of more than 70 men between the ages of 19 and 74, men who consumed 75 grams of sugar, about what you get if you drank a can of sugar-sweetened soda and ate a medium donut, experienced a 25% drop in testosterone for up to 2 hours immediately afterward. Refined sugar also has an effect on the brain. The brains of obese children are much more responsive to refined sugar than non-obese children.

A review of more than 60 studies conducted over the past 35 years revealed that children who are obese experienced heightened activity in the insular cortex and amygdala regions of their brains, areas which are involved in perception, emotion, awareness, taste, motivation, and reward. But this shouldn't surprise us. In fact, rat studies show something especially troubling. When adolescent rats are allowed to freely consume liquid solutions containing sugar or high fructose corn syrup in concentrations comparable to those found in popular sugar-sweetened beverages, they experienced memory problems and brain inflammation, particularly in the hippocampus. This particularly compromised their spatial memory, leaving the rats less able to navigate mazes.

If that were not enough, excessive long-term refined sugar intake can change the structure of a type of nerve cell called medium spiny neurons in the nucleus accumbens, a part of the brain associated with reward circuitry. These structural changes are very similar to the changes caused by powerful stimulant drugs, amphetamine, cocaine, and nicotine. Refined sugar has other negative effects on the brain. When a person has higher than normal blood sugar, certain parts of their brains, the hippocampus and amygdala, which control memory and emotion, begin to atrophy or shrink.

People that have blood sugar levels on the high end of the normal range, a blood sugar level between 100 and 125 milligrams per deciliter, which is considered pre-diabetic, experience about a 6 to 10% more Brain atrophy in the hippocampus and amygdala than people with normal or low blood sugar levels. Also, high fructose corn syrup impairs the brain's ability to repair itself after traumatic brain injury. Scientists studied the brains of rats that regularly consumed high fructose corn syrup before and after experiencing a brain injury. They observed that the high fructose diet prevented the neurons from communicating with each other and rewiring after injury. Fructose from fruit did not have the same effect, likely due to the beneficial effects of polyphenols And fiber in the fruit.

But what is fructose, and why does high fructose corn syrup in particular seem to get a bad rap? A lot of it comes down to a difference in the way that fructose is metabolized. Sucrose, which is table sugar, is a 50/50 mixture of fructose and glucose. High fructose corn syrup, like sucrose, is also a mixture of fructose and glucose. Although there are different formulations of high fructose corn syrup, they all contain a higher percentage of fructose and a lower percentage of glucose. Mostly a 55% fructose and 45% glucose ratio. Glucose in sugar or sugary foods can be metabolized or broken down by every cell in your body. When you eat glucose, your pancreas responds by releasing insulin. Insulin is essential for your body's cells to take up and utilize glucose.

This insulin response also promotes the production of leptin, a hormone that is important for satiety, that feeling of fullness you get after eating. Fructose, somewhat in contrast to glucose, is metabolized primarily by cells in the liver and does not require insulin. This means that fructose does not cause an insulin response and thus does not promote leptin production and satiety. You see the problem here with fructose in particular, right? If you don't feel satiated, you will presumably consume more. All the while, your liver struggles to keep up by producing triglycerides in order to store that excess energy, which then elevates your risk for heart attack and stroke.

Yet both fructose and glucose are in fruits, and despite the fact that there may be some philosophies that wrongly try to demonize fruits, There is clearly a difference between drinking a soda and eating fruit. The difference is that fructose in fruit is bound up in what food scientists refer to as the food matrix, a complex mixture of fiber and other compounds such as polyphenols, which are a class of chemicals that seem to confer many health benefits. This changes the way sugars are metabolized and doesn't raise blood sugar as dramatically. Additionally, fiber itself increases satiety. Perhaps the only so-called good thing about consuming refined sugar is that short-lived buzz you experience after eating it.

This is due to the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which controls your brain's pleasure and reward centers. It's no surprise that studies show that refined sugar increases dopamine and activates the brain's reward pathway in ways that are similar to the effects of drugs like nicotine, cocaine, and morphine. The magnitude of the effects are smaller than with these substance abuse drugs, but the pattern ultimately follows a similar trajectory. You continually activate the brain's reward system, you begin to lose self-control, you start to crave the drug or other substance, and eventually you build up a tolerance to its effects. So you need more and more of it. The same mechanisms are at play when we talk about sugar addiction too.

This likely explains why so many people have a hard time quitting sugar cold turkey. A big question is how long will it take until you get past the dopamine withdrawal? Research shows that for people who quit smoking, it takes 3 months for the 15 to 20% dopamine drop to return to normal after quitting. Reinforcing the parallel between refined sugar consumption and addictive drugs like nicotine, Even a drug doctors use to treat nicotine addiction is beneficial in treating sugar cravings. In one study where rats received varenicline following a long-term sugar consumption, they were able to reduce their sugar consumption in a dose-dependent manner. That is wild. In my opinion, the best thing you can do is to cut it out. You'll be so much healthier by just cutting out this one thing.

When you're craving sweets, reach for naturally sweet fruits like fresh strawberries, blueberries, or apples. Your choice. Clinical studies have shown that once you stop eating refined sugars, you'll discover that foods actually begin to taste sweeter. When people replaced 40% of their calories from sugar with protein, fat, and complex carbohydrates for 1 month, then they were given a sucrose-sweetened pudding, it tasted sweeter to the people that cut out the sugar compared to those that did not. If it takes a little while to wean yourself from foods containing refined sugars, it might be okay to be content with just making gradual steps in the right direction towards your eventual goal of complete elimination of refined sugar from your diet.

After all, we are talking about something that exhibits properties that share a lot in common with real drugs of abuse. Okay, that's it for this podcast. Thank you for listening. If you're looking for more great and useful information on how to potentially increase your healthspan, wellbeing, and maybe even your cognitive or physical performance, go sign up for my email newsletter. I usually send out one email no more than once a week, and it's loaded with great information, articles, podcast announcements, and other information you won't find anywhere else. You can get that at foundmyfitness.com. Until next time, catch you later.