Cracking open that can of soda each day may be raising your risk of certain cancers, according to new research.
In the study, published Aug. 17 in the Gastro Hep Advances journal, Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute researchers found that consuming at least one sugar-sweetened beverage per day is associated with more than twice the risk of developing gastric cancer compared to rarely consuming them. The findings were based on decades of data from more than 100,000 people.
Across the United States, 63% of adults aged 18 or older reported drinking sugar-sweetened beverages one or more times daily, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the study, sugar sweetened beverages included regular soda, energy drinks and juice
with added sugars.
"This is the first study to demonstrate an association between sugar-sweetened beverage intake and gastric cancer in a U.S. population," senior author Dr. Andrew T. Chan, a gastroenterologist and epidemiologist with the Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute, said in a news release. "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."
Previous studies have also known an association between these types of beverages and other types of cancer, including colorectum, breast and liver, the authors added.
Gastric cancer, also known as stomach cancer, can happen in any part of the stomach and is harder to cure when the disease is advanced, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Artificially sweetened beverages, which were defined as low-calorie carbonated beverages in this study, were not associated with increased risk of gastric cancer.
But that doesn't mean diet sodas come with no risk. For example, one of the most common artificial sweeteners, aspartame, was previously labeled a possible carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has identified that aspartame is safe for consumption at acceptable daily limits.
The authors added the study also had some limitations, including, limited information on some of the participants health and family history and a predominately White group aged 30 to 75, meaning they were "unable to examine associations within racial-ethnic subgroups or younger adults."
While weight gain, insulin resistance, inflammation and other proposed underlying mechanisms may explain sugar-sweetened beverages impact on cancer risk, the authors said future research is needed to confirm the biological reasoning behind the association.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Most Americans drink at least one soda a day. It's associated with this type of cancer
