Half of the deaths from cancer in the world are associated with avoidable risk factors, according to a recent study published in the scientific journal The Lancet, and among them obesity and diabetes stand out, two diseases whose prevalence continues to increase and that are closely related to lifestyle: inadequate diet, sedentary lifestyle, insufficient or poor quality sleep…
Not surprisingly, new research has found that people who drink two or more sugar-sweetened beverages a day have a 5% increased risk of dying from obesity-related cancers, including gastrointestinal cancer, cancer of the postmenopausal breast, endometrial cancer and kidney cancer, compared with individuals who never drank these types of beverages.
The study has been led by researchers from the American Cancer Society (ACS), and its results seem to be related to the fact that participants who regularly consumed sugary drinks had a higher body mass index (BMI). BMI is a way of measuring a person’s size, which combines their weight with their height and shows whether they are at a healthy weight.
“Sugar-sweetened beverages were associated with higher mortality from colon and kidney cancer, even after adjusting for BMI”
“Unfortunately, Americans exceed the US Dietary Guidelines’ recommended limits for sugar intake, and sugar-sweetened beverages are known risk factors for weight gain, overweight, and obesity,” said Dr. Marjorie McCullough, senior scientific director for epidemiological research at the American Cancer Society and lead author of the study. “Our findings further support the recommendation to limit consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages included in the ACS Guidelines on Nutrition and Physical Activity for Cancer Prevention to help lower disease risk.”
Artificial Sweeteners and Pancreatic Cancer Risk
Researchers used data from the Cancer Prevention Study-II (CPS-II) to look for associations between intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and artificially sweetened beverages and all cancers, obesity-related cancers, and 20 cancers . They followed the participants from 1982, when more than 934,000 people without cancer provided information about their consumption of these drinks, until 2016.
During study follow-up, 135,093 CPS-II participants died of cancer. The results showed that consumption by men and women of more than two drinks of sugar-sweetened beverages per day, compared with people who never drank them, was not associated with cancer mortality, but was associated with an increased risk. of combined obesity-related cancers, which canceled out after adjusting for BMI.
Sugar-sweetened beverages were associated with increased mortality from colon and kidney cancer, even after adjusting for BMI, while participants who consumed beverages with artificial sweeteners also had a higher risk of developing pancreatic cancer, even after adjusting for BMI. BMI.
“Future research should consider the role of BMI in studies of sugary drinks and cancer risk,” McCullough added. “These results should inform public policy on the consumption of sweetened beverages to lower cancer risk for men and women in the US.”
The researcher concludes that although most artificial sweeteners are generally thought to be safe, the use of these substances is increasing in the United States, so whether their intake is associated with cancer risk in humans remains uncertain. interest. The results of the work have been published in Cancer, Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
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