Small daily servings of juice or other sugary drinks related to increased risk of cancer

According to a study published this week in the UK, sugary drink intake per day was associated with an 18% increase in overall cancer risk and 22% in breast cancer. Medical Journal. Soda cans typically contain between 12 and 16 ounces.

For this study, researchers examined nine years of nutritional data from more than 100,000 French adults who participated in the ongoing Nutrinet-Health survey from 2009 to 2017. The average age of participants was 42 years and 79% were women and 21% men.

The survey asked them to fill out questionnaires recalling their consumption over 24 hours of thousands of food and beverages, of which nearly 100 were sugary drinks such as 100% fruit juices, drinks aerated drinks, sports drinks, energy drinks and some hot drinks, USA Today reported.

During the nine-year survey period, 2,193 new cases of cancer were diagnosed, including nearly 700 breast cancer cases. In the highest quarter of consumption of sugary drinks, the risk of cancer was 30% higher than the lowest quarter of participants, and a 37% higher risk of breast cancer in particular, reported New York. Times.

The risk persisted even as researchers took into account other factors that may affect cancer risk, including demographic information, physical activity, smoking history, and family prevalence of cancer.

The lead author, Mathilde Touvier, said that the results did not yet prove that sugary drinks were carcinogenic, the study being only observational, but the team noted that increased consumption of sugar appeared to be one of the most major risk factors for cancer, potentially fat deposits that have been previously associated with tumor formation.

"High consumption of sugary drinks is a risk factor for obesity and weight gain," said CNN Touvier, research director of the Institute's nutritional epidemiology research team. National Health and Research Institute of the University of Paris 13. "Obesity is in itself a risk factor for cancer."

Interestingly, researchers have not found a link between cancer risk and artificially sweetened "diet" beverages. They also suggested that other chemical additives, including 4-methylimidazole – typically present in caramel color beverages, according to CNN – could be another risk factor for cancer.

As such, the researchers said that more large-scale prospective studies should be conducted to see if their results are replicated, but so far, "these data confirm the relevance of existing nutritional recommendations for limit the consumption of sugary drinks "to about a drink a day.

They also said the results added weight to "policy measures, such as tax restrictions and marketing restrictions on sweetened beverages, which could potentially contribute to reducing the incidence of cancer".

The findings come just a few months after a Harvard study found that daily consumption of sugary drinks could increase the risk of premature death.