Study Finds Drinking Soda Can Shorten Lifespan

Uncommon Wisdom reports a recent study by the University of California at San Francisco has “found that habitual soda drinking may shorten your lifespan by an average of five years.” According to the study’s lead author, Elissa Epel, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry at UCSF, “Regular consumption of sugar-sweetened sodas might influence disease development, not only by straining the body’s metabolic control of sugars, but also through accelerated cellular aging of tissues.” The study was based on changes to people’s telemores, “the protective units of DNA that cap the ends of chromosomes in cells,” with results showing “telemores were shorter in the white blood cells of survey participants who reported drinking more soda.”