The downside of sweet life.

A common expression "healthy look" may have a solid scientific backing.  It appears that people with high blood glucose level, which is often linked to sugar/fructose [over-]consumption, look older to those around them.

(Dec 15, 2011. NS) - A team led by Diana van Heemst at Leiden University in the Netherlands divided 569 healthy volunteers into three groups according to whether they had low, medium or high concentrations of blood glucose after a meal. They also studied 33 people with diabetes who had even higher blood glucose levels.

Sixty independent assessors were then asked to view pictures of the volunteers and rate how old each looked. The results show that high blood sugar levels made people look older, even when other factors affecting appearance were accounted for, such as actual age, smoking and a history of sunbathing.

On a related note, the US government no longer promotes the health pyramid. Now, it's your food plate, with certain types of food allocated in proportion to each other.

reference: Noordam R, et al. (2011) High serum glucose levels are associated with a higher perceived age.
 tags: health, care, control, biology