All About Soft Drinks

A recent study shows us another reason to stop or curtail our usage of soft drinks. Soft drinks have already been shown to increase the risk of diabetes and obesity, but a new study in Singapore suggests that soft drinks can lead to an increased risk of pancreatic cancer.
Pancreatic cancer is a rare but extremely deadly form of cancer. Less than twenty per cent of patients live through the disorder, and most die within a year. Treatment of pancreatic cancer has been relatively ineffective, and the diagnosis is often a death sentence. Any chance to decrease the risk of contracting this deadly cancer should be thoroughly investigated.
 
People who own two or more soft drinks a week may have double the risk of developing deadly pancreatic cancer, compared to non-soda drinkers, new research suggests.
 
"Soft drinks are linked with a higher risk of pancreatic cancer," said Noel Mueller, lead author of a study appearing in the February issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. "We can't speculate too much on the mechanism because this is an observational study, but the increased risk may be working through effects of the hormone insulin."
 
Some suggest that regular soda drinkers are generally less healthy individuals, and may also engage in other lifestyle habits, such as smoking, which could contribute to the elevated risk.
 
"It's an interesting finding but if you look at the people who had the high soft drink intake, they also had other issues that may also predispose you to pancreatic cancer," said Dr. Colin D. Weekes, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Denver. "It's hard to make any true associations from this. "We could argue that smoking could be the issue here and not the soda intake."
 
The study was a collaboration between the University of Minnesota and the National University of Singapore. Mueller, formerly at Minnesota, has since joined Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, DC, as a research associate.
 
The analysis involved more than 60,000 middle-aged or older Chinese Singaporeans. Researchers calculated how much juice and soda the participants drank on average and followed them for 14 years to see how much developed cancer of the pancreas.
 
Those who drank two or more sodas a week were 87% more likely to develop this kind of tumour than individuals who didn't consume any soda.
 
Previous research in U.S. and European populations has suggested an association between sweetened sodas and juices and pancreatic cancer. This is the first study to examine the association in an Asian population, although the authors feel the findings can be extrapolated to Western nations.
 
"We believe that because Singaporean adults have a lot of the same mannerisms as Western countries, which is a tendency to eat fast food and also go shopping, one could say that these findings may be generalizable to other Western countries," said Mueller. "Genetically they are very different from Caucasians, however, their lifestyle is similar to Western countries."
 
"Drinking sugar-sweetened soft drinks has been linked to weight gain, obesity, and diabetes. Both obesity and diabetes are associated with a higher risk of pancreatic cancer, one of the leading causes of cancer death in the United States," Jacobs said. The soft drink industry disputed the findings, however.
 
"The [study] authors are skipping several steps in trying to connect soft drinks with pancreatic cancer, including an allegation regarding an increase in insulin production," Richard Adamson, a consultant to the American Beverage Association and former scientific director of the NCI, said in a statement.
 
"The fact remains that soft drinks do not cause cancer, nor do any authoritative bodies, such as NCI, name soft drinks as a risk factor for pancreatic cancer," he added. "You can be a healthy person and enjoy soft drinks. The key to a healthy lifestyle is balance -- eating a variety of foods and beverages in moderation along with getting regular physical activity," Adamson added.

Others Took A More Cautious View:
"The bottom line is that limiting consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drinks can help in maintaining a healthy weight, which in turn will reduce the risk of many types of cancer and other serious diseases," Jacobs said.
 
A very interesting study indeed. The research is definitely not definitive, but with so many other health-related reasons to stop drinking soda, here is one more reason to drop the soda habit. Switch to water, green tea, juice something with fewer calories and fewer risks. An added bonus is that you will lose weight and have more energy as well.