Consuming a sugary drink a day may significantly raise the risk of developing stomach cancer, according to new research from Mass General Brigham.
After accounting for other risk factors, the researchers found that one or more sugary drinks per day was linked to nearly triple the risk of gastric cancer compared with fewer than one serving per month.
Roughly two-thirds (63%) of U.S. adults report consuming sugar-sweetened beverages at least once a day, CDC data states.
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While earlier studies linked sugary drinks to higher rates of liver, breast and colorectal malignancies, their specific impact on gastric tissue remained unclear until now.
The new study analyzed data from more than 100,000 participants in the Nurses' Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study.
The long-term prospective cohort studies, which were managed by Harvard-affiliated researchers, analyzed links between lifestyle, diet and chronic disease among healthcare workers.
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"It's definitely a concern because we are seeing an increase in cancers of the gastrointestinal tract, particularly in young people [under] 50," senior author Andrew T. Chan, a gastroenterologist and epidemiologist with the Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute in Boston, told Fox News Digital.
"Our increasing consumption of sugary drinks and also ultraprocessed foods is likely to be contributing to some of these cancer trends," he added.
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Gastric cancer is heavily linked to Helicobacter pylori bacteria, a type of bacteria that lives in the stomach lining.
In a subset of study participants, there was no connection found between sugary drink intake and H. pylori, strengthening the hypothesis that sugar (fructose) plays a role.
The researchers defined sugar-sweetened drinks as regular sodas, fruit punches, lemonade and sports beverages, in which fructose is the main sweetener. Higher fructose consumption was associated with greater stomach cancer risk.
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Artificially sweetened drinks, including diet sodas and other low-calorie carbonated drinks, were not linked to an increased risk of gastric cancer among more than 100,000 subjects.
The research was observational, which means it could only show correlation and not direct causation.
The participants were predominantly White healthcare professionals, meaning the findings need to be confirmed across diverse populations, the team acknowledged.
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"The study is unable to really prove cause and effect," Chan said. "What we did see was an association. We certainly need to do more research to understand whether this association between sugary sweetened beverages and stomach cancer is truly causal."
The study was published in the journal Gastro Hep Advances.
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