Some facets of health and fitness such as understanding the inner workings of the body can be complex. It's my job as both a writer and a teacher to break down that complexity and create simplicity.

That's why the brief nutrition unit in seventh grade that serves as the prerequisite before students are allowed to eat a mid-morning snack begins with pictures of a whitish substance that looks like dried-out earwax at least that's the way my students often describe it. Some pictures of the dried-out earwax look to be, according to one student's estimate, almost the size of a grasshopper.What the pictures show is arterial plaque taken from people suffering from coronary artery disease. And while I'll be sure to explain the exact way that processed foods loaded with added sugars and extra fat break down and create the cholesterol and lipids that eventually stick to the walls of arteries and obstruct blood flow to every class, some kids just can't follow that.But they all can see the grasshopper-sized glob of gunk and know they don't want something like that roadblocking their blood from their heart.I tell this story as a segue into recent research involving trans fat, the results of which are as simple to "see" as it gets. While any excess cholesterol and lipids can create reduced blood flow, researchers at UC San Francisco feel that their study involving about 1,000 healthy men under 45 years of age and released during last November at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions clearly links increased trans fat consumption to producing less blood flow to the brain.The study began by determining the amount of trans fat typically ingested by the subjects and then administering a word-recall test.According to lead researcher Beatrice Golomb, MD, PhD, in an article posted at WedMD, "People were presented with a series of cards with words on them, and they had to decide if they were repeats or newly presented words. Each additional gram of trans fat consumed per day was associated with .76 fewer words recalled."Please keep in mind a number of things when assessing Golomb's statement. First, healthy males under the age of 45 should have no problems with memory. Second, a number of the subjects typically consumed 15 grams of trans fat per day.That means the subjects eating the most trans fat made at least 10 percent more mistakes on the test than the subjects eating the least, a figure that struck the researchers as significant.In past studies, trans fat ingestion has been linked to increased rates of heart disease, stroke, and certain cancers. In a past study performed by Golomb and her associates, increased trans fat ingestion led to increased rates of aggression and depression.In short, Golomb calls trans fat an "anti-food" since foods are supposed to aid the body by aiding cell function. Trans fat, she says, clearly does not.Another food that certainly does not aid cell function is soda. Most recently a UC San Francisco study published in the October issue of the American Journal of Public Health linked its consumption to cellular aging by measuring the length of telemores, the DNA at the end of cell chromosomes.Now explaining the link between telemore length and cellular health might be a bit too complicated for a Saturday morning, so let me simplify matters by telling you about the reversible mesh practice jerseys that my high school basketball team once wore.These were fine-looking garments blue on one side, gold on the other and I found it especially cool to be given one for keeps upon making the varsity. Then I found it especially gross to wear one.The school did all our basketball laundry and the coach had a rule: the reversible jerseys only get washed every other day.I was on good terms with him, so I asked why. He said washing accelerated the aging of the garment, loosened the stitching and caused the plastic logos to peel off.I hated the feeling of putting a stinky and stiffened jersey on every other day, but I understood his point. And the point I'm trying to make now is that drinking sugary soda, according to the UC San Francisco study is like washing those reversible basketball jerseys four times a day.Both practices accelerate aging.In the aforementioned study, researchers found subjects who drank larger amounts of soda had shorter telemores. Other studies have correlated shortened telemores with an increase in tissue damage, inflammation, insulin resistance, heart disease, and diabetes.In short, the body can tolerate large amounts of sugar, but it comes at a cost, the accelerated aging of the cells in the body. In fact, the researchers estimated that people who regularly consume 20 ounces of soda a day are biologically 4.6 years older than those the same age who do not.Soda's reduction of telemore length, surprisingly, is comparable to the shortening created by cigarette smoking.