The consumption of sugary drinks has been liked to shorter telomeres. These are the protective caps at the ends of our chromosomes that affect how quickly cells age. When our telomeres shorten, we’re more prone to suffer from age-related chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and some types of cancer. Study leader Cindy Leung of the University of California, San Francisco, says that telomeres were shorter in individuals who reported drinking more soda.

"What we found was that drinking 20 ounces of a sugar-sweetened soda was associated with 4.6 additional years of aging. And that is the same effect found comparing smoking to aging in a previous study."

Leung says that the team looked at a large national sample of healthy adults between age 20 and 65, where telomere length might be most impacted by lifestyle choices.

"And so we really want to understand how our beverages influence our telomere length and then looking over the whole life course, which groups would be most vulnerable to."