Abstract P079: Sugar-Sweetened Soda Consumption is Associated with Shorter Leukocyte Telomere Length among Healthy Adults
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) is linked to increased risks of metabolic disease, but the biological mechanisms underlying this association are still under investigation. Leukocyte telomere length maintenance underlies healthy cellular aging, and may provide a link between SSB consumption and risk of disease. Given the known effects of SSBs on oxidative stress and insulin resistance, we examined the associations between sugar-sweetened beverage, diet soda, and fruit juice consumption, and leukocyte telomere length in 5,309 healthy adults with no prior history of diabetes or cardiovascular disease, using data from the 1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Surveys (NHANES). We hypothesized that beverages with high sugar content would be most detrimental to cellular aging. Leukocyte telomere length was assayed from DNA specimens collected from adult NHANES participants. Diet was assessed using 24-hour dietary recalls. Because 24-hour dietary recalls may not accurately reflect long-term intake, the National Cancer Institute statistical method was used to estimate usual dietary intake. After adjustment for sociodemographic characteristics, smoking behavior, physical activity, dietary quality, and body mass index (BMI), each 8-ounce daily serving of sugar-sweetened sodas was associated with shorter telomeres (β=-0.010, 95% CI -0.019, -0.001), roughly equivalent to 1.8 additional years of aging. Twenty-one percent of study participants consumed ≥20 ounces of sugar-sweetened soda a day, translating into approximately 4.4 additional years of aging for heavy soda drinkers. No significant associations were observed between consumption of diet sodas, non-carbonated SSBs, or 100% fruit juice and telomere length. In conclusion, regular consumption of sugar-sweetened sodas was associated with shorter telomeres in a nationally representative sample of healthy, nonelderly adults independent of BMI and other individual characteristics. These results suggest that SSBs may influence metabolic disease development through accelerated cell aging. Although more research is needed to confirm these associations, these findings strengthen the rationale for limiting the consumption of SSBs.
Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.
How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.005 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".