A cold soda once in a while can feel like a harmless treat — something grabbed with lunch, poured over ice at dinner, or tucked into a gym bag for later. But when that occasional drink becomes a daily habit, its possible effects may extend beyond blood sugar and weight.
New research, published in Gastro Hep Advances, suggests that people who regularly consumed sugar-sweetened beverages had a higher risk of developing stomach cancer. The finding may be especially relevant in the U.S., where roughly 65 percent of adults report drinking at least one sugar-sweetened beverage each day.
“This is the first study to demonstrate an association between sugar-sweetened beverage intake and gastric cancer in a U.S. population. Gastric cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer death worldwide, but we’ve known very little about how diet might contribute to this cancer,” said senior author Andrew T. Chan in a press release.
Daily Sugary Drinks Were Associated With Higher Cancer Risk
The study found that participants who drank at least one serving of a sugar-sweetened beverage per day had 2.45 times the risk of gastric cancer compared with those who consumed less than one serving a month. This pattern appeared in both men and women.
Researchers counted regular carbonated drinks, punch, lemonade, and sports drinks as sugar-sweetened beverages. They also examined low-calorie carbonated drinks, but higher intake of these artificially sweetened beverages was not linked to greater gastric cancer incidence.
Explore All OptionsThe team also found that participants with a higher overall fructose intake experienced more cases of gastric cancer. Earlier research has connected sugary beverages with colorectal, breast, and liver cancers, but far less was known about their possible relationship with stomach cancer.
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A Study of Over 100,000 Adults
The researchers analyzed information from 112,284 participants enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. Both long-running projects have collected detailed information about U.S. adults’ diets, lifestyles, and health over several decades.
Throughout the follow-up period, 278 participants developed gastric cancer. Because the datasets included years of health information, the researchers could account for numerous personal and lifestyle factors that might otherwise influence stomach cancer risk.
They also considered Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium and major risk factor for gastric cancer. Among a subset of 940 participants whose infection status was available, slightly more than one-third showed evidence of H. pylori. However, sugary drink intake was not associated with whether someone carried the bacterium.
What the Study Can — and Cannot — Tell Us
The results make sugary drinks a useful target for further investigation, but they do not establish cause and effect. People who consume these beverages frequently may differ from those who rarely drink them in ways the researchers could not fully measure. The study also had limited information about participants’ family history of gastric cancer and H. pylori status.
Its participants were predominantly white, too, making it difficult to determine whether the association is consistent across racial and ethnic groups. And despite the study’s large population, the total number of gastric cancer cases remained relatively small.
Even so, the findings add stomach cancer to a growing conversation about the potential long-term health consequences of sugary beverages. The researchers recommend that more studies be conducted to confirm the connection and uncover the biological mechanisms that might explain it.
This article is not offering medical advice and should be used for informational purposes only.
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Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
- This article references information from a study published in Gastro Hep Advances: Association Between Sugar-Sweetened and Artificially Sweetened Beverage Intake and Gastric Cancer Incidence
