In addition to packing on the pounds, drinking soda may accelerate aging too. In an eye-opening and first-of-its-kind evaluation, scientists found that regular soda drinkers had significantly shorter telomeres than study subjects who drank soda sparingly or less. Telomeres are the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes that are considered the most accurate measure of how much life is left in a cell. In other words, the shorter your telomeres, the more aged, and typically the more disease prone your cells are and vice-a-versa. This new study compared the telomere lengths from 5,309 American adults relative to their beverage drinking habits. Regardless of age, income, race, or education, the more soda study subjects reported they drank, the shorter their telomeres. Based on the researchers telomere calculations, drinking the equivalent of 20 ounces of soda daily shortens telomeres and accelerates aging on par with being a regular smoker!

The damning scientific data against soda is formidable and continues to mount. I am personally convinced that drinking soda is the quickest and most direct dietary route to weight gain, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and brain dysfunction. So Just Say No to Soda and teach your children to do the same. (American Journal of Public Health, 2014; e1 DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2014.302151)