Next time you think you can’t go without a sugary soda or bottled juice, remind yourself this may add to a risk for stomach cancer.
A study from the Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute found that regular consumption of high sugar or sugar added juices may be associated with a greater risk of gastric cancer.
People who drank sugary beverages daily were more likely to develop stomach cancer than those who consumed them rarely.
Artificially sweetened drinks did not show the same association. The findings appear in Gastro Hep Advances (2026).
Previous studies have linked sugar sweetened beverages with colon, breast and liver cancers. Their relationship with gastric cancer had been less clear.
Researchers analyzed diet, lifestyle and health information from 112,284 participants in the Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study.
During decades of follow-up, 278 participants developed gastric cancer.
This study is the first to find the association in a U.S. population.
Daily Sugary Drinks and Cancer Risk
After accounting for other potential risk factors, researchers found that people drinking at least one sugar sweetened beverage daily had 2.45 times the gastric cancer risk of people drinking less than one serving a month.
Greater fructose intake was also associated with more cancer involving the stomach.
Among women in the Nurses’ Health Study, having more than one sugary beverage daily was associated with a 3.04-fold higher gastric cancer risk than very rare consumption.
Artificially sweetened beverages produced a different result.
Once other factors were considered, higher consumption was not associated with increased gastric cancer incidence.
The study classified soda, punch, lemonade and sports drinks as sugar sweetened beverages.
Low-calorie carbonated drinks were included in the artificially sweetened category.
H. pylori and Gastric Cancer
Researchers also looked at Helicobacter pylori, or H. pylori, a bacterial infection known to increase gastric cancer risk.
H. pylori information was available for 940 participants. More than one-third had evidence of infection.
However, sugary drink consumption was not associated with H. pylori infection.
But do high sugary drinks directly cause stomach cancer?
The findings do not show that sugary drinks actually cause gastric cancer.
This was an observational study, so researchers did identify an association — but could not establish cause and effect.
Other differences between frequent and infrequent sugary drink consumers could have influenced cancer risk.
For example, someone who consumes high sugar sodas every day is less likely to be mindful of fresh vegetable and fiber intake.
They may be less likely to stick to a comprehensive exercise regimen and more likely to use tobacco.
There may also be a higher rate of severe obesity among those who consume high amounts of sugary beverages. Significant obesity, in turn, will limit physical movement.
Thus, more research is needed to confirm the association and determine why sugar sweetened beverages might be connected with gastric cancer.
