Study Says Sugary Drinks Could Increase Your Cancer Risk
You might want to reach for water to quench your thirst this summer.
It was 2012 when I kicked my soda habit. I was planning a wedding and my original motivation was to lose weight, but I later realized that those sugary drinks aren't the best thing for you beyond just putting on pounds. Don't get me wrong, I still have a soda once in a blue moon, but it's not a routine like it used to be.
That being said, maybe you want to limit your intake too.
A recent study says that sugary drinks could increase your risk of cancer. Researchers in France looked at the habits of more that 100,000 people over the age of 18. In the nine years that they followed these people, 2,200 cases of cancer were reported. They concluded that there was an association between those who were diagnosed with cancer and sugary drinks consumption.
Keep in mind that this is correlation, not causation. Basically they noticed that the people who had cancer were those who drank more sugary drinks than those who didn't have cancer. The results show that drinking drinks that are sweetened, even artificially, can increase your cancer risk.
This includes sodas and fruit juices.
Researchers believe that increasing your intake by just 3.5 ounces a day could lead to a higher risk. Overall it's an 18 percent increase, while breast cancer in particular increased 22 percent. Although other large-scale replications of this study will need to be conducted with similar results to confirm this, I don't think it's a bad idea to practice moderation.