A daily glass of orange juice may be at greater risk of cancer than someone who avoids sugary drinks entirely. Just two glasses of fruit juice a day may boost cancer risk by 50 percent, research says.
The study, carried out in France, find a specific association between sugar and cancer. Sugary drinks such as colas, lemonade and energy drinks have been linked to obesity, which is a cause of cancer, but the French researchers suggest there could also be other reasons sugar could trigger it.
People who consumed a daily 150 ml glass of juice were on average 12 per cent more likely to be diagnosed with cancer during the study than the average juice drinker.
While recent public health campaigns have focused largely on the risks from fizzy drinks, the new findings, published in the BMJ, provide arguably the strongest evidence yet that fruit juices, also high in sugar, are comparably dangerous.
There was no increased cancer risk found in people who drank more artificially sweetened, diet drinks.
The study, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), cannot prove that it is the high sugar intake causing this extra risk directly.
However, the researchers said it was possible this was the case, and that sugar could be increasing risk independent of obesity, which is known to contribute to at least 13 types of cancer.
The analysis of more than 100,000 adults revealed particularly strong correlations between the sugary soft drink and breast cancer.
Each extra 100ml of squash, fizzy drinks or 100 percent fruit juice a day was associated with an 18 percent higher chance of being diagnosed with any kind of cancer, the research in French adults found.
>Juthy Saha
