Centenarian reveals SURPRISE drink that helps her live longer
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The path to longevity is long and precarious, with culprits like heart disease and cancer lurking around every corner. However, Dr Michael Mosley has shared that boosting your lifespan could be as simple as cutting back on popular beverages.
Whether you enjoy it straight from the bottle or pour yourself a glass, you probably have a go-to soft drink.
Between the various flavours and brands, it’s easy to get lost in the branching world of sugary drinks.
However, the refreshing beverages might not be so kind to your body and health.
Speaking on his BBC Radio 4 podcast Just One Thing, Dr Mosley shared that lowering your intake of these popular drinks could boost your longevity.
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He said: “Cutting down on sugar, especially sugary drinks could help you live longer.
“A huge study looked into the long-term effects of sugary drinks by following nearly 120,000 health professionals in the US for over 30 years.
“They found that the fewer sugary beverages people consumed, the less likely they were to die prematurely from all causes.”
It’s no surprise that the tricky ingredient that makes these drinks harmful is sugar.
According to the NHS, adults shouldn’t consume more than 30 grams of free sugars a day.
But the doctor warned that “we eat twice” as much on average which means no good news for our bodies.
He said: “Using a lot of added sugar comes with a lot of implications for the body.
“So firstly, if we eat a lot of added sugar at one time point this comes with a spike in glucose. And this leads to a spike in insulin.
“And over time these spikes in insulin can lead to insulin resistance, which changes how our body can react to food intake. And this could also lead to fat deposition in the long run.”
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While you might be tempted to swap your go-to sugary drink for its diet counterpart, research suggests this might not be the best idea.
A study, published in the British Medical Journal, found that artificial sweeteners are no better for your heart.
Looking at various sources of artificial sweeteners, ranging from beverages to table top sweeteners, the research linked the ingredients to a higher risk of heart diseases.
Looking at 103,3888 participants, the team saw more than 1,500 cardiovascular events recorded during the average follow-up period of nine years.
Furthermore, another research, published in the journal Stroke, linked artificially-sweetened drinks to a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
In fact, the study found that those who drank at least one such beverage a day were 2.9 times more likely to develop the dementia type.
While cutting back on the sweet drinks could boost your longevity, Dr Mosley recommended swapping out sugar altogether.
“Swap out sugar for something else like fruit, and your mood, memory and microbiome could benefit,” he added. “You might even live longer.”
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