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For your Health Information: Fructose is metabolized by our livers.

• Glucose from sugar and starches is metabolized in our cells.

Why does this matter?

Consuming cane sugar or HFCS causes your liver to work very hard to process.

 

Fructose is metabolized by our livers.

• Glucose from sugar and starches is metabolized in our cells.

Why does this matter?

Consuming cane sugar or HFCS causes your liver to work very hard to process the fructose. If that sugar comes in a liquid form like soda or fruit juice, the fructose hits your system instantly and causes your liver to go into overdrive in an attempt to process it. And the fructose in High Fructose Corn Syrup hits your liver even faster than regular cane sugar because the fructose is not bound to the glucose in it. So your liver gets a massive shot of fructose faster!

When fructose is ingested quickly in larger quantities, the liver converts it to fat. The fat becomes a substance called triglycerides, a key contributor to heart disease. Some of these triglycerides float around in your bloodstream and get stored as fat on your body.

However, excess fat is also stored in the liver. Ever hear of ‘fatty liver disease’? When the liver starts storing excess amounts of fat. Insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome follow, and not far behind then, is type 2 diabetes.

The result—accelerated aging, chronic disease and sometimes, eventually death, all from excess sugar.

Fats Can Speed Up or Slow Down the Aging Process

The DNA in our cells is coded with a life span. At the ends of each chromosome lies something called a ‘telomere’. Telomeres protect chromosomes and prevent them from fusing into rings or binding with other DNA. Think of telomeres as being kind of like the little hard plastic ends on the ends of shoelaces. They keep the laces from coming undone. Telomeres do a similar thing with your chromosomes.

When a cell divides, as they do thousands of times every day, strands of DNA get snipped to in the process. The places that are snipped are the telomeres. These telomeres get shorter and shorter with each cell division. Eventually the telomere gets too short, and the DNA becomes damaged, putting a halt to the cell’s ability to reproduce. This is when the cell dies, and where aging occurs.

Telomere length is an important marker of true biological age that accurately predicts illness and lifespan in many areas of health. The rate at which this happens varies greatly among individual people and cells. This is why some people may look and act older and may be more susceptible to age related disease than others. 

How does this affect aging in our bodies? Scientists can actually determine a cell's age and can estimate how many more times it may replicate by studying the length of the telomeres in a person. Telomeres may be one of the keys to aging.

Omega 3 Fats vs. Omega 6 Fats, It’s All About the Ratio

Recent scientific research shows omega 3 fats can actually slow down the rate at which telomeres on chromosomes shorten. The latest study conducted by scientists at Ohio State University (2012); on omega 3’s and their effect on telomeres appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

The study showed that those that had the highest levels of omega 3 fatty acids also had the slowest rates of telomere shortening over 5 years. And the patients with the lowest levels of omega 3’s had fastest rate of telomere shortening.

What’s more, taking omega 3 supplements actually lengthened the telomeres in the participants’ DNA.

In other words, those with the highest levels of omega 3 fats aged much more slowly. Supplementing with omega 3 fatty acids also was also found to reduce the oxidative stress from free radicals—which is another reason for accelerated aging. And omega 3 fatty acids also lowered inflammation in this same study group.

As you already know, inflammation and oxidation are key to the beginnings of many chronic health conditions and is thought to be one of the reasons for advanced aging. Obviously anything that reduces inflammation has anti-aging benefits as well.

Omega 3 fatty acids have a very long list of health benefits including: preventing heart disease, protecting the immune system, helping weight loss, keeping skin smooth and preventing wrinkles, improving mental health, preventing cancer, and fighting overall inflammation.

 

By contrast, another study showed that the TYPE of fat eaten can shorten telomeres and accelerate aging. One of the worst types of fat appears to be omega-6 fats, not saturated fat, as the medical community would have us believe. The study also showed that the amount of food eaten also had a significant effect on telomeres. Those who ate the most food had shorter telomeres.

Omega-6 fatty acids have taken over processed foods. Omega-6 fatty acids come primarily from grains and processed vegetable oils. Meat, chicken and farmed fish are raised on grain, making these foods high in omega 6 fatty acids as well.

Omega-6 fats are one type of polyunsaturated fats, which are the most reactive type of fats to heat and light. This leaves them more prone to oxidation and free radical production. Omega-6 fats then become highly inflammatory in our bodies because of this.

Omega 6 fats are in potato chips, corn chips, french fries, bottled salad dressings, corn oil, soy oil, and other vegetable oils. Most anything you purchase pre-made from the grocery store has this type of fat in it. Our primal ancestors ate a diet much higher in omega 3 fats from wild caught fish, grass fed meat and dairy, and wild game. The omega 6 to omega 3 ratio many years ago was around 2 to 1. Today a typical modern diet in America or other westernized countries has about 20 times more omega 6 fats than omega 3 fats.

This unnatural balance of essential fatty acids causes excess inflammation and negative health effects. According to this study, eating excessive amounts of omega 6 fats appears to be one of the fastest ways to accelerate aging. 

Eating more foods containing omega 3 fats will help fight aging internally and externally.

Studies also show proof that the types of fat you eat can actually determine whether you have more wrinkly, saggy skin or softer smoother skin—even as you get older. While some wrinkles seem to be an inevitable sign of aging, and accumulated sun damage, diet may be a key as to whether your skin will stay softer and smoother or look wrinkled and dry as you age. A diet higher in omega 6 fats causes worse sunburns, and contributes to more skin damage from the sun (wrinkling) and is more likely to lead to skin cancer as well.

In a recent British study of over 2100 female twins, scientist looked at telomeres, which are the part of DNA that shortens with aging. (Twins have very similar DNA, so differences were easily noted within the experiment.) One group of the twins was taking vitamin and mineral supplements and the other was not. At the end of the test period, the telomeres of each group were measured.

Telomeres are the lengths of genetic material that cap the free ends of DNA in a cell, and are one of the most reliable measures of aging. As a person ages, the telomeres shorten and the DNA becomes more unstable until eventually the cell dies. While telomeres are all the same length at birth, lifestyle factors such as diet, nutrition, exercise, and other environmental factors will speed up or slow down the length of time it takes for these to deteriorate.  I hope this has been of help to some of you. There is a lot of good information out there and this is just the tip of the iceberg so to speak. 'Nomaste' Peace be with you all in Love and Light!