New study establishes a link between colon cancer and sugary drinks

In a world where infections like COVID-19, black, white, cream, yellow, and green fungus have become usual news, the rise in any other disease or health irregularities tends to pace up our heartbeats. Now amid all of that, rising cases of colon or rectal cancer in young adults just add to the tension. What makes these problems more dangerous is the lack of data and lesser-known treatments for these health conditions.

A lot has not been discovered by health experts and scientists about rising colon or rectal cancer conditions in young adults. But a study has come up with a bizarre and shocking connection. It suggests that sugary drinks can have a link with these growing concerns.

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The research under question examines the link between colorectal cancer and sweet drinks in 94,464 female registered nurses who were enrolled in a long-term prospective health study between 1991 and 2015 when they were 25 to 42 years old.

Researchers also analysed a subset of 41,272 nurses who reported their intake of sugary drinks at ages 13 to 18.

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As far as sugary drinks are concerned, the research takes the consumption of soft drinks, sports drinks, and sweetened teas. The researchers also recorded fruit juice consumption — apple, orange, grapefruit, prune, and others.

Over an average of 24 years of follow-up, the researchers found that at least 109 cases of colorectal cancer among those nurses were recorded for their sugary drink consumption. The study also observed that each additional serving of sweet drinks increased the risk of cancer by 16%.

However, the study showed no association between fruit juice and colon cancer risk. Also, it only proves the association between sugary drinks and such cancers and does not establish any cause or effects.

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Nour Makarem, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health who was not involved in the research, said, “This is robust evidence, novel evidence that higher intakes of soda are involved in a higher risk for colorectal cancer. We know that sugar-sweetened beverages have been linked to weight gain, glucose dysregulation and so on, which are also risk factors. So there’s a plausible mechanism that underlies these relationships.”

This study was published in the medical journal ‘Gut.’