A cold soda, lemonade or sports drink can seem like a harmless little pleasure.
But if one of those drinks has become part of your daily routine, there’s a reason to think twice about the habit.
About 65% of U.S. adults report drinking at least one sugar-sweetened beverage every day. These drinks are already known for delivering a hefty dose of added sugar.
Now researchers have uncovered another possible concern — one involving stomach cancer.
Quick answer: Are sugary drinks linked to stomach cancer?
Yes. In a decades-long study of more than 112,000 U.S. adults, people who drank at least one sugar-sweetened beverage every day had a 2.45-fold higher risk of developing gastric, or stomach, cancer than people who consumed fewer than one per month.
The study found an association, however. It does not prove sugary drinks directly cause stomach cancer.
Daily sugary drinks were linked to 2.45 times the risk
Researchers analyzed dietary, lifestyle and health information from 112,284 people participating in the long-running Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study.
Over decades of follow-up, 278 participants developed gastric cancer.
After accounting for other factors that could influence cancer risk, the researchers found that people consuming at least one sugar-sweetened beverage every day had a 2.45-fold higher risk of gastric cancer compared with people drinking fewer than one serving per month.
The association appeared in both women and men.
That’s an attention-getting difference.
But it’s important to understand what the research can — and cannot — tell us.
This was an observational study. That means researchers identified a relationship between sugary-drink consumption and stomach cancer, but they cannot say from this study alone that one caused the other.
Still, when an everyday habit shows an association of this size in a large population followed for decades, it gives researchers something important to investigate.
Which sugary drinks were included?
The researchers counted several common drinks as sugar-sweetened beverages, including:
- Carbonated soft drinks
- Punch
- Lemonade
- Sports drinks
They also examined artificially sweetened beverages, which the study defined as low-calorie carbonated drinks.
Interestingly, artificially sweetened beverages were not associated with a higher incidence of gastric cancer.
That doesn’t establish that artificially sweetened drinks are healthier overall. It simply means researchers did not see the same stomach cancer association in this study.
Fructose may offer another clue
One finding deserves particular attention.
The researchers also looked at total fructose intake and found that greater fructose consumption was associated with a higher incidence of gastric cancer.
Fructose is one of the sugars commonly found in sugar-sweetened beverages.
Researchers do not yet know why sugary drinks might be associated with stomach cancer, and this study was not designed to establish the biological mechanism.
So the fructose finding is not proof of an explanation.
But it does give researchers another piece of the puzzle to explore — especially since liquid sugar can make it remarkably easy to consume a large amount of added sugar without thinking much about it.
H. pylori did not explain the sugary drink connection
Researchers also investigated Helicobacter pylori — or H. pylori — a bacterium known to increase the risk of stomach cancer.
They had H. pylori information for a subset of 940 participants, slightly more than one-third of whom showed evidence of infection.
But sugary-drink consumption was not associated with H. pylori infection.
Based on the information available, that means H. pylori does not appear to explain why people who drank more sugary beverages developed more gastric cancer.
We’ve previously looked at another factor that may increase the danger associated with H. pylori and gastric cancer.
What the study can — and cannot — tell us
There are reasons to interpret the findings carefully.
People who drink sugary beverages every day may differ from people who rarely drink them in other ways. Diet, body weight, exercise, smoking, alcohol use and other lifestyle factors can influence cancer risk.
The researchers adjusted for many of these factors, but observational research can never eliminate every possible influence.
Information about H. pylori infection and family history of stomach cancer was also limited. And because participants were predominantly white, researchers cannot yet say whether the association is the same across racial and ethnic groups.
Even so, this was a large study drawing on detailed diet and health information collected over many years.
And the finding was significant enough for researchers to call for further investigation into the relationship between sugary drinks and gastric cancer.
An everyday change that can add up
Fortunately, you don’t need to make a dramatic change overnight.
If soda, sweetened iced tea, lemonade, punch or sports drinks regularly show up in your week, start simply by noticing how often you drink them.
Then consider replacing some servings with:
- Water
- Unsweetened sparkling water
- Unsweetened tea
- Another no-added-sugar beverage you actually enjoy
The point isn’t that one sugary drink automatically puts you in danger.
It’s that reducing a frequent source of added sugar is already a sensible health habit — and this study adds stomach health to the list of reasons you may want to reconsider what you drink every day.
Sources:
Association Between Sugar-Sweetened and Artificially Sweetened Beverage Intake and Gastric Cancer Incidence — Gastro Hep Advances
One sugary drink a day linked to more than double the risk of stomach cancer — Science Daily
FAQ: What to know about sugary drinks and stomach cancer
This study cannot prove that sugary drinks cause stomach cancer. However, drinking at least one sugar-sweetened beverage daily was associated with a 2.45-fold higher risk of gastric cancer compared with drinking fewer than one per month.
The higher risk was seen among people who consumed at least one sugar-sweetened beverage per day.
The study included carbonated sugary drinks, punch, lemonade and sports drinks.
Not in this study. Researchers did not find the same association between artificially sweetened beverages and gastric cancer. That does not establish that artificially sweetened beverages are healthier overall.
Yes. Researchers also found that higher total fructose intake was associated with a greater incidence of gastric cancer, although the study did not establish why that association occurred.
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