Rats on Sugar Diet Appear to Age Faster

Rats that eat high levels of a natural sugar known as fructose seem to age faster than other rats--and the same could be true for people who eat too much sweet junk food, Israeli researchers said Monday.

Fructose, found naturally in honey and fruit, is used widely in foods ranging from soft drinks to yogurt. Although its sweet taste is popular, the sugar could cause wrinkles and health problems, the researchers said.

Dr. Moshe Werman and Boaz Levi of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology fed large amounts of fructose to laboratory rats. Writing in the Journal of Nutrition, they said the fructose-fed rats showed changes in the collagen in their skin and bones.

Collagen, a fibrous protein found in connective tissue, bone and cartilage, basically holds the body together. The loss of collagen is what causes sagging skin and deep wrinkles in older people. The process affected, Werman’s team said, is known as “cross-linking.”

“Too much cross-linking reduces elasticity and makes the skin stiff and rigid, and these are the conditions that encourage wrinkled skin,” Werman said in a statement.

He said the same could be true of people, although this has not been shown.