Regularly consuming sugar-sweetened beverages could more than double a person's risk of developing gastric cancer, according to a recent study. Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School found that those who consumed a sugar-sweetened drink daily, compared to those who consumed one or fewer a month, had a 2.45-fold higher risk of developing gastric cancer. The findings were published in the journal Gastro Hep Advances in August.
In the U.S., over 60 percent of Americans aged 18 or older report drinking sugar-sweetened beverages one or more times daily, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data. Around 60 percent of American children also have a sugar-sweetened beverage daily, and on average, they consume more than 400 calories from those beverages a day. Sugar-sweetened beverages include things like sodas, energy drinks and juices with added sugars, but the researchers noted this does not include fresh fruit juices—that are 100 percent fruit.
Gastric, or stomach, cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death globally. Each year more than 30,000 Americans are diagnosed with the disease and over 10,000 die from it, according to the American Cancer Society. The researchers analyzed health information from over 112,000 U.S. adults.
Alongside finding a two-fold increase in incidence of gastric cancer among those who regularly consumed sugary beverages, they also found that the association was notably strong among females in the study. However, they did not find the same association between higher consumption of sugary drinks and increased incidence of gastric cancer with artificially sweetened beverages. Artificial sweeteners have been associated with negative health impacts in previous studies, such as harm to metabolic and gut health.
Manish Shah, a professor of medicine and gastrointestinal oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian, who was not involved in the study, told Newsweek that he believed the findings were "remarkable" if "proven to be true." "There has been increasing awareness of possible risks of some cancers with high uses of fructose and other sugar additives in our diet," he said, explaining that high fructose consumption has previously been associated with the development of colon cancer, although the risk found was "modest" in comparison. Scientists are still trying to figure out what could be behind an association between higher sugar consumption and certain cancers, but Shah said there are "likely multiple effects at play." "One interesting emerging area is that the fructose could lead to alterations in the gut microbiota which in turn lead to higher cancer risk," he said. Previous studies have also suggested that sugary drinks have been linked with weight gain and metabolic changes, and obesity has been associated with cancer in other research.
Chan, Andrew et al. (2026) Association between sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened beverage intake and gastric cancer incidence. Gastro Hep Advances. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772572326002189 Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Kara Dolman and Gray R.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
