Do you find yourself reaching out to fizzy drinks out of habit? Do you prefer having Cola when you feel thirsty? Do you depend on fizzy drinks to help you recover from an episode of binge eating? If this is the case, you ought to be careful. A recent study has highlighted the case of fizzy drink addiction that could actually mean to be something serious. In worst case scenario, it can even lead to cancer. Yes! You read that right.
Conducted by Cornell University, the purpose of the study was to analyse the increase in bowel cancer incidences in people under the age of 35. The researchers discovered that two common elements, glucose and fructose, which are present in fizzy drinks, sweetened by corn syrup, actually spiked the growth of intestinal tumours in mice. They fed high-fructose syrup to mice who were vulnerable to intestinal cancer and found out that the tumor started eating the sugar – “in fact the cancer was using fructose and glucose together to more than double its growth rate,” shared Dr Lewis Cantley. And the high fructose syrup that they were fed equaled less than one Coke can a day for us humans.
While this is evidence to study the link between tumours and fizzy drinks, but we have to take into consideration that this study was done on mice who were predisposed to the risk of cancer. This could mean that the risk may not be real for humans but it is only ideal to cut out high fructose corn syrup from your diet, regardless of it being directly linked to cancers, since there are multiple risk factors associated with the consumption of fizzy drinks every day.