One or more sugary drinks a day linked to nearly triple gastric cancer risk

BOSTON - Adults who drank one or more sugar-sweetened beverages a day had nearly triple the risk of stomach cancer compared with people who drank fewer than one a month, according to Mass General Brigham research summarized by Fox News.

After adjusting for other risk factors, the link was about 2.45 times higher risk. Women who drank more than one sugary drink per day showed more than a threefold increase in the reported analysis. CDC data cited in the coverage say about 63 percent of U.S. adults consume sugar-sweetened beverages at least once a day.

Researchers used long-running Nurses' Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study data covering more than 100,000 participants. Sugar-sweetened drinks were defined as regular sodas, fruit punches, lemonade, and sports beverages sweetened mainly with fructose. Higher fructose intake tracked with higher gastric cancer rates.

Artificially sweetened drinks, including diet sodas, were not linked to higher gastric cancer risk in the same cohort. In a subset of participants, sugary drink intake was not tied to Helicobacter pylori, the stomach bacterium long associated with gastric cancer. That finding supports the researchers' interest in sugar itself rather than that infection pathway alone.

Senior author Dr. Andrew T. Chan, a gastroenterologist and epidemiologist at the Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute, told Fox News Digital that gastrointestinal cancers are rising in people under 50 and that sugary drinks and ultraprocessed foods may be contributing. He stressed the work shows association, not proven cause and effect, and that more research is needed.

The study appeared in Gastro Hep Advances. Participants were mostly White health professionals, so results need testing in broader groups. For readers, the practical step is straightforward: replace daily sugary sodas and punches with water, unsweetened tea, or other low-sugar choices while keeping regular medical screening.