One Soft Drink Daily May Increase Liver Cancer Risk 85% — Study

Harvard Medical School  researchers found that  women who consume one sugary beverage daily have a higher risk of developing liver cancer and a 68 percent higher risk of dying from liver disease. However, the overall risk of death is low, with only 150 fatalities in the trial.

A study found no association between liver cancer and artificially sweetened beverages, despite concerns about aspartame’s potential link to tumor development. Dr. Pauline Emmett, a senior research fellow at the University of Bristol, advises against drinking sugar-sweetened beverages daily due to high calorie content and increased risk of obesity, cancer, and liver disease.

The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) studied 98,786 postmenopausal women aged 50-79 from 1993 to 2020. Results showed that 6.8 percent consumed sugar-sweetened beverages daily, while 13.1 percent consumed artificially sweetened beverages daily.

The study’s findings were expressed in “person years.”

The study found that women who consumed sugary drinks had higher rates of liver cancer and chronic liver disease deaths, while those who consumed three or fewer per month had lower rates.

Artificially-sweetened beverage intake was not significantly associated with chronic liver disease mortality.

It also established that  consuming one or more sugar-sweetened beverages daily was associated with a higher incidence of liver cancer and chronic liver diseases. Potential pathways include obesity, blood glucose increases, and liver fat accumulation.