Substitution of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages for Other Beverages: Can It Be the Next Step Towards Healthy Aging?

With the prolongation of life expectancy, the gap between lifespan and “health span,” the disease-free lifespan, has been widening due to the massive burden of age-related chronic diseases and research on healthy aging has been gaining momentum. A growing body of evidence suggests that diet is a strong determinant of healthy aging and consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB), a major source of added sugars, predicts poor health outcomes in the aging population, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. Evidence further supports a link between sugar-sweetened beverages-triggered pathological processes and biologic factors of aging, including inflammaging, oxidative stress, and alterations in intestinal microbiota. At present, substitution of sugar-sweetened beverages with healthier alternative beverage remains the most robust strategy to limit the deleterious effects of sugar-sweetened beverages on health worldwide and may help achieve healthy longevity. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of mechanisms by which sugar-sweetened beverages consumption may impact the physiological aging process and how a simple intervention of beverage replacement may promote healthy aging.

Recent findings indicate that SSB are associated with accelerated aging phenotype and activate various adverse biological processes such as chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, insulin resistance, and gut dysbiosis.

Replacing SSB with healthier beverages may be a reasonable option to reduce the burden of chronic disease in the aging population and even prolong life and healthspan.