Soft Drinks & Cancer, Chocolate & Strokes

Melanie Haiken, Caring.com

Do soft drinks cause pancreatic cancer? Does chocolate prevent stroke? Two nutrition studies just swept across the newspapers and airwaves. Did you see them? Here are the short-and-sweet headline versions:

1. Soda pop causes pancreatic cancer.
2. Chocolate prevents stroke.

These studies got a lot of attention because these are popular foods. One study warns of a serious disease we all fear, while the other gives you another reason to eat something you want to eat anyway. But are they true? To be honest, even after taking a look at the actual data, I’m still not sure, and I’m not sure the experts know either. But they make sense and fit with what we already know about nutrition, so they do make important points.

The Problem with Soda
Most soft drinks are made with highly concentrated sweeteners, like high-fructose corn sweetener. Even the “healthier” versions made with good old-fashioned sugar deliver it in a highly concentrated dose. The job of the pancreas is to secrete insulin when needed to process sugar, so when you hit your body with a wallop of sugar, the pancreas goes into overdrive. Experts at the University of Minnesota followed 60,000 people in China and found a link between those who drank large quantities of soda and the incidence of pancreatic cancer. The researchers theorize that stressing the pancreas repeatedly with high doses of sugar leads to inflammation, which in turn sets up a vulnerability to pancreatic cancer.

Their study found that people who drank two or more sodas a week had an 87 percent increase in their risk of developing pancreatic cancer. Since pancreatic cancer is rare, and the overall risk of developing it is low, even an 87 percent increase is not as big as it sounds. But pancreatic cancer is a particularly deadly type of cancer, killing most of those who get it within a few years. So protecting our pancreas is something we all need to take seriously.

Soft Drinks & Cancer, Chocolate & Strokes originally appeared on Caring.com.

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Sarah C.

9:53AM PST on Mar 9, 2010

Another 'excuse' to eat chocolate :)

send a green star

No S.

7:42AM PST on Mar 9, 2010

Very interesting!

A very important and natural way of preventing cancer is to include broccoli in your daily meals. Here are the MAIN HEALTH RELATED BENEFITS OF BROCCOLI:

http://www.the-perfectshape.com/2007/02/03/the-wonders-of-broccoli/

Giulia S.

9:49AM PST on Mar 7, 2010

I love dark chocolate, but I never drink soda.
I noted it, thank you

Abby M.

3:23PM PST on Feb 27, 2010

I have always despised the taste of carbonation and therefore all sodas. Water, OJ, soymilk are my staples.
And I love my dark chocolate
I'd say I'm in pretty good shape :)

Tanik T.

8:54AM PST on Feb 27, 2010

I used to drink lots of soda but now I've managed to reduce my soda intake significantly..

Cheryl B.

2:32AM PST on Feb 25, 2010

I'm reading this while I'm drinking a Sprite....oops

Priscilla B.

11:36AM PST on Feb 24, 2010

yay! chocolate!

Charmaine C.

4:53AM PST on Feb 24, 2010

I can't tell you how distressing I find these scientific white papers. Doctors, government's health departments and the slimming industry, advocate drinking artificial sweeteners in a bid to lose the excess weight, gain health and for a lot of people, help control their diabetes (still advised today by Diabetes councilors). It has been put in EVERYTHING, even non diet foods, and is still being added in copious quatities, as we speak. The diet soft drink industry is huge and packs a mighty economical wallop! I have used these products and drank diet sodas for more years than I can remember! I did so on the recommendation of scientists, doctors and other 'learned' people who all proclaimed the safeness and efficacy of these sweeteners and advised we exchange from unhealthy and tooth rotting sugar! I never ate my fill of chocolate since the target was to lose the weight not pile it on eating sweets. What will happen now if I do developed such a life threatening and in fact fatal disease as a result of following this well documented advice?! How many people are there out there, like me, who feel they are sitting on a time bomb? When it comes to what's good or not, it seems the consumers are the guinea pigs and we just cannot win that illusive prize of perfect knowledge and perfect health!

Josh T.

1:13PM PST on Feb 23, 2010

All but gave up having soda in the house. It's been wonderful.

Linda J.

11:13AM PST on Feb 23, 2010

I love dark chocolate soooo I`m good