Is Sugar Aging You Faster?
by Ashleigh Feltham,  Accredited Practising Dietitian and Accredited Nutritionist.

Do you find the offer of a slice of chocolate cake too tempting to decline? Added sugar in moderation is part of a healthy balanced life, but having too much is harmful for your body in more ways than one. The types of foods and drinks I am talking about are lollies, cakes, cookies, chocolate, soda, heavily refined and carb-heavy foods, like takeaway pizza or burger buns, and other sweet foods and drinks from the ‘sometimes’ category.

Having too much of these types of foods not only makes achieving and maintaining a healthy weight a challenge, but may also be fast forwarding the aging process in your skin. This process is called glycation.

Glycation as the chemical process of a sugar molecule bonding to protein or fat, and it is linked to harmful processes in the body. Glycation can also occur in your DNA. When this process occurs, the damage to the cell forms a product called advanced glycation end product.

Advanced glycation end products have permanently damaged the protein, lipid or DNA they have attached to and alter the structure of that molecule to become discoloured, inflexible and weak. If this process happens to the proteins, elastin or collagen, they lose their normal structure, become malformed and ultimately change the appearance of your skin from youthful to more aged.

Glycation is enhanced when you have excess sugar; your body can only take on and use a certain amount of sugar at one time. The extra is either stored as fat or becomes glycated.

The amount of glycation that occurs in your body is directly tied to the glycaemic index (GI) of a food or glycaemic load of a meal. GI is a ranking from 1 to 100 indicating how much carbohydrate is in a food and how these carbohydrates will raise your blood sugar levels.

GI ranking is grouped as follows.

Low GI – 1-55

Medium GI – 55-70

High GI – 70-100

The higher the score, the more quickly the food will raise your blood sugar and consequently your insulin – the hormone needed to take sugar from your blood into your cells. For example, puffed rice cereals have a high GI compared to rolled oats with a low GI. The amount of fibre, how refined the carbohydrate is, its ripeness and the type of sugar in a food go into the GI rating.

The goal for steady and sustained energy release is a healthy state for those who have diabetes, but can also assist in healthy cholesterol levels and maintaining a healthy weight. Think about a roller coaster compared to a smooth train ride. The roller coaster ride is fun on occasion, but you don’t want to be experiencing this sensation all the time.

The story does not end there, though; your body is affected by not only the quality of the carbohydrates you eat (the GI), but also by how much carbohydrate is in that food. This is called the glycemic load (GL). To work this out, the GI is multiplied by the amount of carbohydrate as a percentage out of 100.

For example, an apple with a GI of 38 and 13g of carbohydrate = 38 x 13/100 = 5

GL has its own ranking groups:

Low GL – 10 or less

Medium GL – 11-19

High GL – 20 or more

The final component is knowing how much a meal is going to affect your blood sugar. Simply add the GL of each food ingredient together. To keep your GL low, aim for less than 100 GL each day. This means that you can still have a meal with higher GI content, but not have a negative impact on your blood sugars if the other parts of the meal are low GI.

Lifestyle Tips

To create a lifestyle of low-GL eating, aim to enjoy your ‘sometimes’ foods and drinks that are high in added sugar in moderation. Also, use the healthy plate model, which will give your meal a good amount of protein and fibre. These two components help to lower the GL of a meal.

An example of a balanced day of eating is:

Breakfast

2 pieces of whole grain bread (40g each slice) with 2 poached eggs topped with 40g shredded low fat cheddar cheese and a side of sautéed spinach, mushrooms and tomato

Snack

1 cup of carrot, celery and capsicum sticks with 30g of 100% peanut butter

Lunch

35g wholegrain crackers topped with half an avocado and sauerkraut and minestrone soup

Snack

200g no-fat Greek yoghurt

Dinner

1/2 cup of quinoa with 100g of steamed salmon and 1 cup of cooked Asian vegetables

Pick Your Method of Cooking Wisely

In addition to this, be selective of how you cook your food. Cooking methods like toasting, grilling, frying, or roasting increase the amount of glycation. In addition, ultra-processed foods have high levels of advanced glycation. Whenever possible, opt for lower heat cooking methods, such as sautéing, stir-frying, stewing or slow cooking.

Marination is also a great way to lower the advanced stage glycation. Top choices are extra virgin olive oil, which is a heart healthy monounsaturated oil. Also, add extra flavour with herbs and spices, garlic, vinegar, lemon and lime.

Take home message:

Is sugar aging you? Sugar is not evil. However, if added sugar regularly takes over your diet each day, this may not only add to your waistline, but also increase your risk of chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes and heart disease, and speed up the aging of your skin. Moderation is key.

References:

1. Cambridge Dictionary, Glycation, 27/03/2024
2. FAQS, University of Syndey, 27/3/2024
3. Does Sugar Age You? What You Need to Know About Glycation, LifeExtension.com

Learn more:

Reduce Added Sugar for Better Gut Health by Ashleigh Feltham