Colon Cancer Is Rising in Younger Adults. Do Sugary Drinks Play a Role?

As consumption of sugar-laden drinks rose in the 1980s and ’90s, so did colorectal cancer rates among younger adults, a study in nurses found.

Colon and rectal cancers are rising in younger adults, though researchers aren’t sure why. A new study of women and diet suggests that sugar-sweetened drinks may play a role.

Rates of colorectal cancer in people under 50 have increased sharply in recent years. Compared with people born around 1950, those born around 1990 have twice the risk for colon cancer and four times the risk for rectal cancer.

While sales of sugar-sweetened drinks have been decreasing in recent years, the percentage of calories consumed in sugary drinks rose dramatically between 1977 and 2001. During those years, the figure rose from 5.1 percent of total calories consumed to 12.3 percent among 19- to 39-year-olds, and from 4.8 percent to 10.3 percent among children 18 and under. By 2014 those figures had dropped, but 7 percent of calories consumed by Americans overall were still from sugary drinks.

The new study, published in the medical journal Gut, examined the link between colorectal cancer and sweet drinks in 94,464 female registered nurses who were enrolled in a long-term prospective health study between 1991 and 2015, when they were 25 to 42 years old. They also looked at a subset of 41,272 nurses who reported their intake of sugary drinks at ages 13 to 18.

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