Do fizzy drinks cause cancer?
Do fizzy drinks really cause cancer?
Recent research followed over 60,000 people over time as part of the Singapore-Chinese Study.
The questionnaire asked people about their lifestyles, including how many soft drinks they usually consumed and other dietary questions. They followed up the participants for up to 14 years, noting when someone in the group developed cancer and other ailments.
Now, what’s interesting is that the research clearly showed that a high intake of a diet high in fresh and preserved red meat, refined carbohydrates, and sodium was associated with increased risk of respiratory ailments.
The thing that received the most attention, though was fizzy drinks and sodas, with some sensational headlines in the US and UK national press like this:
The reason for the attention was that by the end of the study, 140 of the participants had developed pancreatic cancer.
By doing a thorough analysis to find out what the link might be, the study concluded that people in the research who drank more than two soft drinks a week (actually, people in this group drank an average of five per week) had an 87% higher risk of developing pancreatic cancer compared to people who avoided them.
That’s almost double the risk of getting pancreatic cancer by drinking fizzy sodas.
Whew!
What happens when you drink a lot of sugary or syrupy drinks to potentially cause cancer?
Well, sugar stimulates your pancreas to produce more insulin and high levels of circulating insulin have consistently been associated with an increased cancer risk, including breast and pancreatic cancers.
What’s interesting though, is that drinking natural fruit juice (also high in sugars) did not appear to increase the risk.
Perhaps the answer lies in other dietary habits as well?
Indeed, the study noted that soda drinkers were more likely to smoke, drink more alcohol and eat more calories, carbohydrates, fat, added sugar and red meat than those who shun soft drinks.
For me, I grew up without hardly drinking any soda at all as a child, except perhaps the odd can of Lilt on the hottest day of the year while on the annual seaside vacation. My Mum had a great trick for cleaning her copper pots; she would soak them overnight in Coke because the acid caused oxidisation and lovely shiny pots were magically revealed the next morning!
These days, I don’t know whether to be fascinated or appalled by my American colleagues who think nothing of a 16oz bottle of Coke or two… for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Ugh! I still wonder what will happen to their guts – would the soda rot them with acid?
I suppose the moral of the story is everything in moderation.
What say you?
