(Image source from: Fizzy drinks knock off longevity})

Are you addicted to fizzy drinks? If yes, then it's time to trash the habit for good.

A recent study has revealed that  guzzling up to three cans of fizzy drinks a day can “knock off years of your life.”

A toxicity test conducted on mice using the drinks revealed that while the  females died at twice the normal rate and males were a quarter less likely to hold territory and reproduce.

"Our results provide evidence that added sugar consumed at concentrations currently considered safe exerts dramatic adverse impacts on mammalian health," the researchers said.

"This demonstrates the adverse effects of added sugars at human-relevant levels," University of Utah biology professor Wayne Potts, the study's senior author, said.

“He said that previous studies using other tests fed mice large doses of sugar disproportionate to the amount people consume in sweetened beverages, baked goods and candy,” said a source.

"I have reduced refined sugar intake and encouraged my family to do the same," he added, noting that the new test showed that the 25 per cent "added-sugar" diet - 12.5 per cent dextrose (the industrial name for glucose) and 12.5 per cent fructose - was just as harmful to the health of mice as being the inbred offspring of first cousins.

Even though the mice didn't become obese and showed few metabolic symptoms, the sensitive test showed "they died more often and tended to have fewer babies," the study's first author, James Ruff, who recently earned his Ph.D. at the University of Utah said.

"We have shown that levels of sugar that people typically consume - and that are considered safe by regulatory agencies - impair the health of mice," he said.

The research is published online in the journal Nature Communications.

AW: Suchorita Dutta