A study published this week in the journal Gastro Hep Advances found that people who drink at least one sugar-sweetened beverage per day have a 2.45-fold higher risk of developing gastric cancer compared to those who drink less than one per month.
The study was conducted by researchers at Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute. It analyzed data from 112,284 participants in the Nurses' Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study — two of the most rigorous long-term diet and health databases in the world, tracking participants over decades. During the follow-up period, 278 participants developed gastric cancer.
"This is the first study to demonstrate an association between sugar-sweetened beverage intake and gastric cancer in a U.S. population," said Dr. Andrew T. Chan, a gastroenterologist and epidemiologist with the Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute.
Approximately 63% of American adults report consuming one or more sugar-sweetened beverages every day.
What the Study Found
The finding is the first to establish this specific association in a U.S. sample — earlier research had linked sugar-sweetened beverages to increased risks of colorectal, breast, and liver cancer, but evidence specific to gastric cancer was limited.
The 2.45-fold elevated risk held after researchers accounted for other known risk factors for gastric cancer, including Helicobacter pylori infection — the most significant known cause of the disease. Controlling for H. pylori is important because it's a common bacterial infection that independently raises gastric cancer risk, and it can be correlated with dietary patterns.
The fact that the association persisted after adjusting for H. pylori status suggests the relationship between sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and gastric cancer risk is independent — not simply explained by the fact that people who drink a lot of soda also tend to have other risk factors.
The researchers found no significant association between artificially sweetened beverages and gastric cancer risk. Diet soda, in this study, was not linked to higher rates of the disease.
What Counts as a Sugar-Sweetened Beverage
This is the part most people underestimate. The study defined sugar-sweetened beverages broadly: regular soda, energy drinks, and fruit drinks or juices with added sugars were all included. A glass of sweetened iced tea, a daily energy drink, or a bottle of "fruit punch" all count.
What doesn't count: 100% fruit juice, artificially sweetened beverages, water, coffee, and tea without added sugar.
The 63% figure from the CDC refers to adults who drink at least one serving of any of these beverages daily. For context on how common this is: that's roughly two out of every three American adults. The study's finding applies to all of them.
The Diet Soda Caveat
The finding that diet soda wasn't associated with gastric cancer risk may seem reassuring, but doesn't mean artificially sweetened beverages are without concern. One of the most common artificial sweeteners, aspartame, was classified as a "possibly carcinogenic to humans" substance by the International Agency for Research on Cancer in 2023 — based on limited evidence in a different cancer category, not gastric cancer.
The FDA maintains that aspartame is safe at acceptable daily intake levels. But the regulatory picture around artificial sweeteners is more complicated than a simple "safe" designation, and the USA Today story covering this research is careful to note that the absence of a gastric cancer link for diet soda is not a clean bill of health.
What to Do With This
Gastric cancer is not the most common cancer in the United States — approximately 31,510 new cases are expected in 2026, compared to roughly 300,000+ new cases of lung or breast cancer. A 2.45-fold increase on a relatively rare baseline risk is different from a 2.45-fold increase on a common one.
That said, the association is large by epidemiological standards, the study is well-designed, and the finding adds gastric cancer to a growing list of cancer types where regular sugar-sweetened beverage consumption has been implicated. The evidence is not proof of causation. It is, however, another reason to reconsider the daily habit that 63% of American adults currently maintain.
The most defensible response to this finding is not to panic but to treat it as data: one more meaningful signal in an increasingly long list of evidence that regular sugar-sweetened beverage consumption carries costs that go beyond what the label shows.
