Sugar sweetened beverages, natural fruit juices, and cancer: what we know and what still needs to be assessed

Niloofar Eshaghian; Mohammad Javad Zare; Mohammad Keshavarz Mohammadian; Zohre Gozidehkar; Afsaneh Ahansaz; Gholamreza Askari; Masoomeh Asadi; Alireza Milajerdi; Omid Sadeghi

doi:10.3389/fnut.2023.1301335

Sugar sweetened beverages, natural fruit juices, and cancer: what we know and what still needs to be assessed

Front Nutr. 2023 Dec 21:10:1301335. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2023.1301335. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Niloofar Eshaghian¹, Mohammad Javad Zare², Mohammad Keshavarz Mohammadian³, Zohre Gozidehkar⁴, Afsaneh Ahansaz⁵, Gholamreza Askari⁶, Masoomeh Asadi⁷, Alireza Milajerdi⁸, Omid Sadeghi⁶

Affiliations

¹ Student Research Committee, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
² Nutrition Research Center, School of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
³ Department of Nutrition, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
⁴ Department of Public Health, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran.
⁵ Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran.
⁶ Nutrition and Food Security Research Center, Department of Community Nutrition, School of Nutrition and Food Science, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
⁷ Department of Operating Room Nursing, Abadan University of Medical Sciences, Abadan, Iran.
⁸ Research Center for Biochemistry and Nutrition in Metabolic Diseases, Institute for Basic Sciences, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran.

Abstract

Cancer is known as one of the leading causes of death in the world. In addition to early mortality, cancer is associated with disability in affected patients. Among environmental risk factors, special attention has been paid to the role of dietary factors. In recent decades, the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and natural fruit juices has increased. Several studies have assessed the effects of these beverages on human health and found that a higher intake of SSBs is associated with a greater risk of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. However, current evidence for cancer incidence and mortality is not conclusive. In the current review, we concluded that SSBs intake might be positively associated with cancer incidence/mortality through their increasing effects on obesity, inflammatory biomarkers, serum levels of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), and advanced glycation end-products. Such a positive association was also seen for natural fruit juices. However, types of natural fruit juices were not considered in most previous studies. In addition, some types of cancer including brain, lung, and renal cancers were not assessed in relation to SSBs and natural fruit juices. Therefore, further studies are needed in this regard.

Keywords: cancer; cancer mortality; carbonated beverages; natural fruit juices; sugar-sweetened beverages.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The study was financially supported by Abadan University of Medical Sciences, Abadan, Iran (ID: 1708). The funder had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.