Study Links Daily Sugary Drinks to More Than Double the Risk of Stomach Cancer

Drink a soda, sports drink, or lemonade every day and you may be raising your risk of stomach cancer, according to a new study out of Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute.

The research, published in the journal Gastro Hep Advances, found that people who drank at least one sugar-sweetened beverage a day had a 2.45 times higher risk of developing gastric cancer compared with people who drank less than one serving a month. Gastric cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer death worldwide, according to the study's senior author, Dr. Andrew T. Chan, a gastroenterologist and epidemiologist at Mass General Brigham.

"This is the first study to demonstrate an association between sugar-sweetened beverage intake and gastric cancer in a US population," Chan said, as quoted by The Independent and news-medical. "We've known very little about how diet might contribute to this cancer."

The numbers behind the claim

Researchers pulled data from two of the longest-running health studies in the country: the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. Combined, those cohorts tracked 112,284 people from 1986 to 2022, according to ScienceAlert. Participants filled out dietary questionnaires every two years for decades.

Out of that group, 278 people developed gastric cancer. That's a small slice of a huge sample, which is exactly why researchers needed such a long timeline and large population to detect the pattern at all.

The risk showed up in both sexes but hit women harder. Women who drank more than one sugary beverage a day had a 3.04 times higher risk of gastric cancer compared to women who rarely drank them, according to news-medical and bioengineer. Men saw roughly double the risk. Sugar-sweetened beverages in the study meant carbonated soft drinks, punch, lemonade, and sports drinks. Fructose, the primary sweetener in most of these products, was independently linked to higher gastric cancer rates, which researchers say strengthens the biological case.

What the study did NOT find

Diet soda and other artificially sweetened, low-calorie carbonated drinks showed no increased risk, according to every source reviewed, including The Independent and news-medical. Given years of public anxiety over artificial sweeteners and cancer, some of it fueled by a 2023 World Health Organization classification of aspartame as "possibly carcinogenic," this study points in another direction. Sugar, not substitutes, appears to be the variable tied to gastric cancer risk here.

Researchers also checked whether sugary drink habits were linked to infection by Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium already established as a major gastric cancer risk factor. They found no connection between H. pylori infection and beverage consumption in a subset of 940 participants, meaning the sugar-cancer link doesn't appear to run through that bacterial pathway.

The honest limits of the data

This is an observational study. It shows correlation, not proof of causation. Chan's team and every outlet covering this, including bioengineer and news-medical, are upfront that the findings don't establish that sugary drinks directly cause stomach cancer.

The study also leaned on a population that was predominantly white, limiting how well the results generalize across racial and ethnic groups, a limitation flagged by The Independent. Researchers had limited data on participants' full H. pylori status and family history of gastric cancer. These are two factors that matter significantly for stomach cancer risk and could be affecting the results.

People who drink more soda may also tend to have other habits, worse diets overall, less exercise, and higher obesity rates that could be contributing factors. The researchers say they adjusted for a broad range of lifestyle, dietary, and medical factors using decades of repeated data, which is a stronger design than a one-time survey. But adjustment isn't the same as certainty, and the study authors say so themselves.

Context nobody's hiding

About 65% of U.S. adults report drinking at least one sugar-sweetened beverage daily, according to news-medical, and ScienceAlert puts the number at roughly two-thirds of adults, with most American children doing the same. Sugary drinks are already linked to over 180,000 deaths annually worldwide, per ScienceAlert, tied to obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cancers of the colon, breast, and liver.

Fox News covered this by airing Chan's own comments directly, framing cutting back on sugary drinks as "an actionable way to reduce risk," a practical takeaway rather than an alarmist one. GB News led with the sharper, more dramatic "2.5 times higher" framing in its headline, technically accurate to the study's topline number but skipping past the observational caveats until later.

No public health agency has issued new guidance based on this single study, and Chan's team isn't calling for one. What happens next is more research, ideally in more diverse populations with better H. pylori and family history data, to see if the pattern holds up under tighter scrutiny.