Sweet Drinks Lead To Madness And Shorten Life

Read Time:3 Minute, 11 Second

The addiction to sugary drinks alters the activity of almost three hundred genes in the neurons of the cerebral cortex.

It is well known that sugary soda greatly increases the risk of obesity . The sugars that it contains disrupt the sensitivity of cells to insulin, turn into fats and thus cause metabolic disorders, the main among which is diabetes. American scientists have found that just a few cans of soda a day cut life in half, and in some cases, death can occur within a year.

In addition, all kinds of sugary drinks directly affect the brain, and again, not in the most beneficial way. Over time, those who often drink soda can develop disorders similar to those recorded in cancer patients and crazy people, writes the Daily Mail.

Researchers from Macquarie University (Australia) set up the following experiment: adult rats were given water with a 10% sugar content – exactly the amount of sugar in soft drinks on average. The rats drank this water for 26 days, and no other liquid was given to the unfortunate. After that, they were kept on ordinary water for a week.

Scientists noticed that rats that lived on sweetened water for a long time became much more active than animals that drank ordinary water all this time. (Moreover, hyperactivity in rats began precisely after they were transferred from sweet water to plain water.) When the researchers tried to see what was happening with the brain (and for this they compared the protein composition in the neurons of the orbitofrontal cortex in different groups of animals), it turned out that that among those who drank sweets, out of 1,373 proteins, the ratio changed in 290. Some of them were present in greater numbers than usual, the content of others, on the contrary, fell. These were proteins for a wide variety of purposes, from those needed for DNA replication to those needed to conduct a signal between neurons.

Changes in the activity of genes in brain cells can be observed, for example, if you put a similar experiment with caffeine, however, as the authors of the work emphasize, in the case of sweet water, the effect was much stronger.

That is, excess sugar affected the brain more powerfully than the stimulant caffeine. How exactly this affects the brain (other than the fact that the individual becomes hyperactive), the researchers do not yet know – so these results only say that there is an influence, and it is very large.

One could, of course, say that the experimental conditions were rather implausible, but in reality, many people, according to them, do not drink anything but a variety of sodas. That is, in fact, they themselves put themselves in the position of the rats described above, which were tormented by sweet water for about a month, with the only difference being that people drink it for years and of their own free will. However, even if further research reveals some dire consequences for the brain, such results are unlikely to impress those who do not part with a glass of cola.

The scientists reported the results of the study at the congress of the Neurobiology Society in San Diego (USA), reports computerra.ru.

Recently, American scientists calculated that just a few cans of soda per day cut life in half, and in some cases, death can occur within a year. Malfunctions in the liver and heart, which causes sugar, as well as diabetes mellitus, the risk of which is increased, lead to diseases and premature death. Moreover, neither high-quality food products, which make up the bulk of the diet, nor increased physical activity can correct the situation.

Scientists note that a critically dangerous amount of sugar is contained in three standard cans of sweet carbonated drinks with a volume of 0.33 liters.