Sugar And Anti-Aging: How Are They Connected?
There is a lot that has been written on this topic so I am going to give you the big points from my perspective that are NOT what most people already say about sugar and blood sugar.
When I say reduce (or eliminate sugar) from your diet I don’t just mean dessert or candy. The more common sources of sugar that are HIGHLY detrimental to our health are liquid sugars – soda for one is MASSIVE, but I am gonna guess many of you don’t drink soda or if you do it is on occasion… but what about sweetened coffees and sports drinks? Alcoholic beverages, wine, and beer are their own source of toxicity but beyond the impact of alcohol (also molecularly a sugar) is the actual sugars that come with the ethanol.
What’s so bad about sugar anyways?
Sugar is the NUMBER ONE SOURCE of inflammation in our bodies in the US today. Period. The most impactful thing you can do to adjust your daily diet and improve your health is to remove all sources of unintentional sugar.
It is the number one thing you can do to reduce the impact of aging as well. The process we commonly call ‘aging’ is actually a vast accumulation of oxidative stress, nutrient depletion, and low mitochondrial function that has many factors… but excess blood sugar is one of the biggest accelerators to these processes.
One of the things excess sugar in the body creates is somewhat similar to the process of rusting metal.
The chemical reaction for rusting is 4Fe + 3O2 + H2O = 2Fe2O3
Not to freak you guys out with biochemistry, but the point is iron (metal) + oxygen (air) and water breaks down the metal. This is very similar to what happens with glucose + oxygen + proteins of the immune system all floating around in the same water based soup called your blood. The sugars oxidize and change the molecular structure of nearby proteins resulting in a lot of damage to the inside of your artery walls and the function of those immune proteins.
There is a world of impact in your body when you have excess blood sugar (which is caused by more than just eating too much sugar, although that is the place to start in your diet.) The excess blood sugar that is NOT getting pulled into your cells to generate energy stays in the blood and oxidizes (think “rusting” inside your arteries) and forms destructive compounds that contribute to the injury inside your arteries, leading to plaque formation and ‘clogged arteries’ or atherosclerosis.
The bottom line is excess sugar leads to several different harmful processes in your body:
Increased oxidative stress
Rapid aging
Injury to arteries leading to heart disease
Reduced function of your immune system
Increased food for cancer cells (tumor cells LOVE sugar)
Food for fungus/yeast over growth (think of itchy skin for no reason)
Increased uncontrolled inflammation leading to acne, menstrual cramps, joint pain, and cataracts (made out of excess sugars built up over a life time in your eyes)
High triglycerides - TRI-glyceride = three glycerides or three sugars. The biggest source is sugar & alcohol in our diet. This is the one cholesterol metric that is DIRECTLY impacted by what you eat (more on the truth about cholesterol in future newsletters.)
How Much Sugar is Okay?
Well I am going to be blunt here… how many cigarettes are ok? The sugar adds up, and there are many hidden sources.
It’s not just the white granular stuff, or just sweets, candy, cookies, cake, or ice cream. When I say reduce the sugar in your diet I also include the hidden sources of sugar – salad dressing, ketchup, teriyaki sauce, fruit juices, dried fruit, baked goods, bread, deli meats, bacon, flavored yogurts, tomato sauce, protein bars/granola bars, cereal, etc.
Food for thought: did you know that ALL bread was made from flour, water, and salt until the early 20th century in the US, when we turned bread making from a local bakery or your mother’s kitchen into a factory made processed food? That’s when quick-acting yeast became the primary way to leaven bread. Previously, bread had been leavened from bacterial starters - all dough was sourdough! The bacterial starters helped to digest a lot of the gluten in the bread, and made the nutrients in bread more absorbable. Once quick-acting yeast was introduced into the equation, bread became a lot faster and easier to make, PLUS yeast ferments faster with more sugar around…. so what do you think bread manufacturers started adding to our bread?
When the new ‘wonder bread’ was first put on the market people complained that it was too sweet and too soft and didn’t taste like real bread. Additionally, sugar acts as a preservative and attracts water to keep the bread from molding and from drying out in transport and sitting on store shelves. The bottom line, I’m sorry to say, is the main reason we added sugar to bread was in order to turn it into a longer-lasting, shelf-stable product big companies could sell us - replacing something that was already healthy and locally produced in the first place. Yet again, thank you processed food for making our lives less healthy.
Do YOU, Dr. Marshall, really not eat ANY sugar?
I do eat sugar. Sometimes even daily. However, by eliminating most of the big sources and hidden sources of sugar in my regular diet, when I DO eat sugar I know exactly how much I am getting. I do not add sugar to my coffee. I do no drink any sugar drinks (only low-sugar kombucha once or twice a week, and sometimes none at all). I drink 2-4 alcoholic beverages a month and usually it’s top shelf bourbon, nothing added but an ice cube. I make my own salad dressings and most of my own sauces. I buy tomato sauce without sugar and I rarely eat deli meat, dried fruit, or protein bars. I don’t eat granola, cereal, yogurt, cured meat or drink fruit juice of any kind. So when I choose to eat ice cream I know that is the only sugar I am getting.
So where do I start?
Here are my top 3 recommended actions that you can take on to reduce sugar in your diet:
Challenge level 1: Give up all obvious ‘sweet’ sources of sugar for 30-days as a trial run.
Challenge level 2: Elevate that by reading labels and eliminating as many hidden sources of sugar you can discover for 30-days (want this figured out for you already? Do the Whole30 program)
Awareness exercise: take notes on your phone about how you are feeling BEFORE eating sugar - what’s your emotional state? Frustration level? Stress level? Energy level? Start to track what it is that you are trying to fix, solve or ignore by eating sweet things
Want to dive deeper?
Here are some references for you to dive deeper on this topic:
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/317483
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2021/03/excess-blood-sugar-promotes-clogging-arteries-study
https://www.lifespan.io/topic/blood-glucose-is-a-biomarker-of-aging/