Sugary Drinks Increases Risk of Endometrial Cancer

Sharon Moore November 27, 2013

Ladies, there’s another reason why you should give up your love for sugary drinks. A new study found that postmenopausal women who consumed sugar-sweetened beverages are more likely to develop the most common type of endometrial cancer than women who did not.

Researchers followed 23,039 postmenopausal women who reported dietary intake, demographic information, and medical history in 1986, prior to the cancer diagnosis, as part of the Iowa Women’s Health Study. They asked participants to report intake frequency of 127 food items in the previous 12 months. The consumption of sugar-sweetened beverage was categorised ranging from no intake (the lowest quintile) to between 1.7 and 60.5 servings a week (the highest quintile).

The findings revealed that postmenopausal women with the highest intakes of sugar-sweetened beverages had whopping 78 per cent increased risk for oestrogen-dependent type I endometrial cancer. Meaning, the higher the consumption was, the greater the risk.

"Although ours is the first study to show this relationship, it is not surprising to see that women who drank more sugar-sweetened beverages had a higher risk of oestrogen-dependent type I endometrial cancer but not oestrogen-independent type II endometrial cancer," explained Maki Inoue-Choi, Ph.D., M.S., R.D., the lead author of the study and a research associate in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in Minneapolis.

He said other studies have shown a link between the increasing consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and obesity. Obese women tend to have higher levels of oestrogen and insulin than those with normal weight. This increased level of oestrogen and insulin are major risk factors for endometrial cancer.

"Research has documented the contribution of sugar-sweetened beverages to the obesity epidemic," said Inoue-Choi. "Too much added sugar can boost a person’s overall calorie intake and may increase the risk of health conditions such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer." the researchers wrote.

Endometrial cancer is a cancer that forms in the tissue lining the uterus, which affects around 7,400 women in the UK each year. Most cases develop in women aged in their 50s and 60s.

Source of this article:

Sugar-Sweetened Soft Drink Consumption and Risk of Pancreatic Cancer in Two Prospective Cohorts