UK aging expert Professor Peter Piper recently spoke out against what he believes is a major health problem. It seems that the sodium benzoate used to preserve soft drinks may also be responsible for DNA damage. When Piper applied the chemical to yeast cells, it damaged an important area of DNA in the “power station” of cells known as the mitochondria.
Here’s what Professor Piper told The Independent:
“These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it: they knock it out altogether. The mitochondria consumes the oxygen to give you energy and if you damage it – as happens in a number if diseased states – then the cell starts to malfunction very seriously. And there is a whole array of diseases that are now being tied to damage to this DNA – Parkinson’s and quite a lot of neuro-degenerative diseases, but above all the whole process of ageing.”
This is bad news for Coca Cola, a company that is struggling to get back on track.