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Getting the latest healthcare news for you
Getting the latest healthcare news for you
That soda habit may be riskier than you think. A new study found that people who drink more than one sugar-sweetened beverage daily have up to three times the risk of developing gastric cancer compared to non-drinkers. The findings, drawn from two large US cohorts, mark the first study to link sugary drink consumption to stomach cancer in a US population.
That daily soda habit may come with a serious hidden cost. A new prospective cohort study published in Gastro Hep Advances found that consuming more than one sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) per day is associated with up to three times the risk of gastric cancer compared to never-users — and the link held for both men and women.
Researchers analyzed data from over 112,000 participants across two long-running US cohorts — the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study — tracking dietary intake over decades. Artificially sweetened beverages, by contrast, showed no significant association with gastric cancer risk. Notably, H. pylori infection status did not appear to confound the SSB-cancer relationship.
By the Numbers:
Why it matters: Gastric cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer death worldwide, yet dietary contributors have been poorly understood. This study is the first to flag SSBs as a potential risk factor in a US population, offering a modifiable lifestyle target for prevention — though researchers note that the biological mechanisms still need to be confirmed.
