Overview
- Researchers analyzed diet and health data from two long U.S. cohorts totaling about 112,000 participants and identified several hundred confirmed gastric cancer cases to test links with sugary drinks.
- People who drank at least one sugar‑sweetened beverage a day had roughly twice the risk of stomach cancer compared with rare consumers, with some analyses reporting a larger increase for women.
- Higher intake of fructose, the main sweetener in many studied drinks, was associated with greater risk while beverages with artificial sweeteners did not show the same link in the analysis.
- The team examined Helicobacter pylori and other factors but reported gaps in H. pylori and family‑history data and a predominantly White cohort, which limit how broadly the results can be applied.
- Authors stress the study is observational and cannot prove causation, and they call for independent replication and laboratory studies to test biological mechanisms before public‑health actions are recommended.