Another Reason To Kick Soda

With the epidemic rise in diabetes, do we really need another reason to stop drinking so much soda? If the higher rates of diabetes didn’t stop you from consuming excess amounts of soda, then new research just might. A recent study out of the University of Minnesota shows a strong link between consumption of sodas and pancreatic cancer. The fourteen year study of over 60,000 individuals, men and women, in Singapore shows that those who drank two or more soft drinks a week had an eighty-seven percent higher risk of developing pancreatic cancer.  

The link between high levels of sugar intake and associated pancreatic problems make clinical sense. Insulin is what the pancreas makes in order to regulate and digest sugar. Excess intake of sugar interferes with the pancreas’s ability to regulate insulin production, which can then contribute to cancerous cell growth within the pancreas. As expected, the incidences of diabetes amongst individuals being followed for the study also increased as the years went by, which may have even lowered the total number of incidences of pancreatic cancer do to medical intervention and the subsequent decrease in soda intake in those individuals.

Link: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/WellnessNews/soft-drinks-linked-pancreatic-cancer-risk/story?id=9779034

Link to research article: http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/19/2/447.abstract

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