‘Soft drink’ increases risk of breast cancer – Study

Life is good, more so when there is money to acquire things of interest. Sweet beverages are usually handy when thirsty, while to some, a meal is incomplete without a bottle of soft drink to go down with it. However, as this kind of nutrition may seem good, opulent and a sign of good life, it may not be entirely good for the body.

A new study has revealed that women who drink up to three sugar-sweetened beverages or ‘soft drink’ in a week increase their risk of having breast cancer, due to increased density of the breast.

It is believed that it takes discipline and self-control on the part of both men and women to shy away from sweet drinks, but the new study has found a link between sweet drinks and breast cancer risk.

Lead author of the study, Dr. Caroline Diorio, from Laval University in Quebec, Canada, said, “We know that worldwide consumption of sugar has increased and the findings of this study show what effect that type of diet could have on breast density, one of the strongest indicators for breast cancer risk.”

The researchers recruited 1,555 women for the study, half of whom were pre-menopausal and the other half were post-menopausal. While the pre-menopausal women consumed sugar-sweetened beverages, post-menopausal women ate more food that also included fat, both within the same period. Thereafter, they answered a questionnaire about how often they drank sugar-sweetened fruit drinks and sugary beverages.

For the premenopausal women, they were given a serving of 355ml, about the size of a normal can of fizzy drink, and their breast density and those of the post-menopausal women were measured through mammogram screening.

The post-menopausal women who ate more food that included fat saw an increase in breast density, while the pre-menopausal women experienced more breast density when they consumed sugar-sweetened beverages, and are 3 per cent more likely to have dense breasts than those who didn’t consume the drinks.

“And it was not like the pre-menopausal women were pounding the soda, they were drinking just three sugar-sweetened beverages a week,” Diorio said.

The researchers found that the more sugary drinks consumed by the women in their study, the greater the density of their breasts, which is a known risk factor for cancer.

Diorio said, “An increase of about three per cent in breast density is not negligible in terms of breast cancer risk.

“By comparison, it has been shown that healthy women at high risk of developing breast cancer who received the breast cancer drug, tamoxifen, for four-and-a-half years had a reduction of 6.4 per cent in breast density, and it has been observed that tamoxifen can reduce the risk of breast cancer by 30-50 per cent in high-risk women.”

The study, which was published in the journal BMC Public Health, further revealed that sugar increases the migration of breast cells together. Diorio says having dense breasts increases the risk of breast cancer by making it difficult to see tumours on mammograms, which may explain why the premenopausal women who consumed sugar-sweetened drinks were 3 per cent more likely to have dense breasts than those who did not consume the drinks.

In addition, women with dense breasts have a higher risk of developing cancer because they have less fatty tissue and more non-fatty tissue that increases the number of cells that have the potential to become cancerous and drain supportive tissue that surrounds the gland. It is believed that sugar can enhance cell growth, therefore increasing the density of breast tissue.

Apart from the fact that breast density could be inherited, younger women’s breasts are normally dense, i.e. have less fatty tissue and as women age, there’s less breast tissue left and more fat.

Their cancers are also more likely to be missed because any areas of abnormal tissue are harder to spot during mammogram screening.

Diorio advised that the worldwide increase in sugar consumption should be reduced because of its adverse effects.

The study concluded that the association between sugar consumption and likelihood of breast density, while small, is significant, which Diorio believes gives another reason to kick sugar to the curb.

In a reaction, medical practitioner, Dr. Rotimi Adesanya, said there is no direct relationship between sugar and breast cancer, as it has no effect on it. He said what could be linked with the risk of breast cancer is fatty diet.

“If a woman takes excess fat, it can predestine the person to having breast cancer because part of the precautions we tell women is that they should reduce their fatty meat and eat healthy. Although taking three bottles of soft drink may also be too much but it is not linked to breast cancer.

“We also advise people to reduce their sugar intake but it’s not a factor for breast cancer except if the person is overweight, and when such a person takes excess sugar, it adds to the weight which can lead to obesity, which is another risk factor for breast cancer.”

Adesanya added that the three basic things that could put anyone in danger in terms of nutrition are oil, fat and sugar, and therefore advised that caution be taken on the three.