It is a common notion that too much sugar is poison – and now a new study says even if you eat healthily, every gram of this sweetener can age your cells.

The study, conducted by the University of California in San Francisco says the biological age – the age of your cells and tissues is highly influenced by your genetics and lifestyle habits like diet and exercise – and it can be higher or lower than your chronological age – the number of years you have been alive.

For this study, researchers added 61.5 grams of sugar - the average daily intake for the 342 Northern California women, who were mostly around 40 years of age. The US Food and Drug Administration has recommended limiting added sugar to around 50 grams daily.

The researchers tied healthy eating – incorporating a Mediterranean diet which includes lots of healthy foods like whole grains, fruits, vegetables, seafood, beans, and nuts - to a lower biological age. Thereafter, scientists found that added sugar accelerated biological ageing, even if it was part of an otherwise healthy diet. “We knew that high levels of added sugars are linked to worsened metabolic health and early disease, possibly more than any other dietary factor,” said Elissa Epel, a USCF professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences and study co-senior author.

“Now we know that accelerated [biological] aging is underlying this relationship, and this is likely one of many ways that excessive sugar intake limits healthy longevity,” Epel added.

According to scientists, the ageing process speeds up when sugar combines with protein or fat. While these aging culprits are not 100 per cent in your control, minding your overall diet can help with how your body protects and heals. Eliminating 10 grams of added sugar from your daily diet may reduce your biological age by 2.4 months over time, the researchers said.

High levels of sugar in the blood damage cells that cause chronic inflammation, which has been associated with heart disease, diabetes, liver disease, and cancer. Also, sugar leads to weight gain and obesity – a widespread issue across the world today.

Scientists say even though ageing is a part of getting older, sugar accelerates it more than anything else. According to experts, sugar shortens telomere – a strand of our DNA that protects it from damage. While your body normally replaces those telomeres, sugar quickens that shortening, and thereby advances the ageing process. Even though it is not fully clear how much sugar causes this reaction, what is known is the more sugar that is in your body, the worse it is.

Doctors say it is never too late to start removing sugar from your diet, as it contributes to your risk for developing chronic diseases, like diabetes, heart disease, stroke, dementia, cancer, and more. A few easy ways you can do that, are:

Drinking lots of water daily helps reduce your overall calorie and added sugar intake and regulate your bowel movements

Consume more fruits as they are satisfying and help you get over cravings for sweets while limiting sugar intake

Add more spices to recipes can help reduce the amount of sugar

Also, you can use more alternative sweeteners to replace sugar in solid foods.