That cold bottle of soda, sweetened juice or sports drink may feel like a harmless part of your daily routine. But new research has raised an uncomfortable question: could having a sugary drink every day be linked to a higher risk of stomach cancer? A study involving more than 112,000 U.S. adults found that people consuming at least one sugar-sweetened beverage a day had about 2.45 times the risk of gastric cancer compared with those drinking less than one serving a month. The finding is serious, but it does not prove that sugary drinks directly cause cancer.
