A glucose-rich diet shortens longevity of mice

High plasma levels of glucose and insulin over long time periods play an important role in the genesis of diabetic complications. There is evidence that the long term consumption of glucose-rich diet by rats is detrimental to insulin sensitivity. We investigated the effect of a glucose-rich diet on longevity of 70 female mice which were compared to 70 mice on a control diet. The average age of death of the control group was 568 +/- 139 days compared to 511 +/- 170 for the glucose group and the seven oldest mice of the control group died at age 890 +/- 52 days, while the seven oldest mice of the glucose group died at 833 +/- 49 days. These differences are statistically significant (P less than or equal to 0.05). Our work shows that a life-long intake of a diet with 20% of total energy derived from glucose leads to a significant reduction of the average and maximal life-span in female mice and thus, supports previous observations of detrimental effects of high glucose intake over long periods. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.