Take a big gulp of this
Sugary drinks affect your health
Among the things that ought to, but doesn’t seem to, shock us is that Americans live much shorter lives than they should. Some lost years result from social factors, and some are personal. The data is complex but real.
Life expectancy in the US has been on the decline for years. In absolute terms, Covid and other factors dropped American life expectancy in 2022 back to 2004 levels. A loss of almost two decades in national longevity growth. That was bad, but the really shocking comparison is with our international peers. There, the fall in US life expectancy becomes stark.
US life expectancy began to fall far earlier in relative terms than in 2004. US men and women have life expectancies that are 4-5 years shorter than those of their European and other peers.
We need to do something about this both nationally and personally. We can’t control Covid or many other macro social factors. Our diet, however, is personal and it is critical to our life expectancy.
The data in all of these health areas are complex, and there is no room to disentangle them here. But there is a line of research right in line with my interests and this topic. It looks at longevity given the average diet and the optimal longevity diet.
One recent study found that adopting a better diet could be a powerful agent in improving longevity. For example, the study found that US men could add an average of 8.7 years to their expected lives through their diet.
Another study found that ultra-processed foods are associated with accelerated aging. These are serious scientific studies and important findings. This one used more than 22,000 participants over five years in Italy. We would probably expect that the increases in aging resulted from a lower nutritional value of ultra-high processed food. That was not the case.
The relationship of aging with the consumption of ultra-high-processed foods was only weakly related to nutritional value. The cause was something else—maybe even the packing. There is more to come on this, for sure, especially because of findings of the negative effects on young children.
So, changing the overall diet is important, but minor changes to the diet also matter. Things like sugary drinks matter. A recent study in the prestigious journal The Lancet found that sugary drinks are a serious concern. They are associated with higher cancer and heart disease rates. This only adds to the other reasons to be careful with large sugary drinks including obesity and cavities. Past research on sugary drinks also highlighted the connection between sugary drinks and weight gain.
That’s why the article in the Wall Street Journal titled “How the Big Gulp Wound Up in a $47 billion takeover battle” caught my eye. The article described 7-Eleven’s Big Gulp drink as “quick, sweet, colorful and cheap,” a powerhouse seller amid products like potato chips, cigarettes, and power-steering fluid. I am always amazed when I see a drink like this. It’s enormous and has high-fructose corn syrup. The article speaks to how the chain that makes this very popular drink is at the center of a bidding war.
While Big Gulp fountain drinks are not for me, I appreciate that choice is important. Some people will want a Big Gulp even though it may contain a high concentration of sugar. Still, I hope this article and the references give everyone pause before they indulge in something like a Big Gulp. This is one clear example of where one needs to think and drink carefully.
References
7-Eleven, the Slurpee and a $47 Billion Takeover Battle - Wall Street Journal
How does U.S. life expectancy compare to other countries? - Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker
PFAS in diet and other sources: The health risks - Medical News Today
The evidence on super-sized soft drinks - Cornell University
Ultra-processed foods may accelerate biological aging - Medical News Network-2