Sugar-Sweetened Drinks Linked to Increased Incidence of Liver Cancer, Mortality

TUESDAY, Aug. 8, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Intake of sugar-sweetened beverages is associated with an increased incidence of liver cancer and death from chronic liver disease among postmenopausal women, according to a study published in the Aug. 8 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Longgang Zhao, Ph.D., from the University of South Carolina in Columbia, and colleagues conducted a prospective cohort study involving 98,786 postmenopausal women aged 50 to 79 years enrolled at 40 clinical centers in the United States to examine the associations of intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and artificially sweetened beverages with the incidence of liver cancer and chronic liver disease mortality.

A total of 207 women developed liver cancer and 148 died from chronic liver disease during a median follow-up of 20.9 years. The researchers found that 6.8 and 13.1 percent of women consumed one or more sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened beverage servings per day, respectively, at three-year follow-up. Those who consumed one or more servings per day of sugar-sweetened beverages had a significantly higher risk for liver cancer and chronic liver disease mortality than those with intake of three or fewer servings of sugar-sweetened beverages per month. No significantly increased incidence of liver cancer or chronic liver disease mortality was seen for those who consumed one or more artificially sweetened beverages per day compared with intake of three or fewer per month.

"Future studies should confirm these findings and identify the biological pathways of these associations," the authors write.

One author disclosed financial ties to Mars Edge.

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