Today, a large proportion of the daily caloric intake is dedicated to processed foods primarily due to ease of accessibility, affordability, and time constraints. As part of the conventional American diet, the main sources of sugar are sweetened beverages (soft drinks, fruit juices, and others), cereals, yogurts, sweets, and most other processed foods.
The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M) shared a blog on the impact of sugar consumption: “each daily 20-ounce serving of a sugar-sweetened drink equated to 4.6 additional years of aging, independently from other factors.” A diet high in added sugar and processed foods has been found to increase the risk of developing depression. A long-term study found that men who consumed over 67 grams of sugar per day were up to 23% more likely to develop depression than men who consumed fewer than 40 grams daily.