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If you find yourself reaching for a sugary drink at the same time every day (*cough cough* Coke lovers, I’m looking at you), you really ought to reconsider. New medical evidence reveals your seemingly not-so-serious soda addiction could actually be very serious. So much so that research is finding it could even cause cancer.
Said research began after there was an increase in bowel cancer cases in people under 35 years old in the United States, Dr. Lewis Cantley of Cornell University shared. From there, scientists discovered that glucose and fructose, which are found in drinks sweetened with corn syrup, actually accelerated the growth of intestinal tumors in mice, The Sun reports.
Mice that were prone to intestinal cancer were fed high-fructose corn syrup—equaling less than one can of Coke per day for a human. As a result, “The tumor was directly eating the sugar…the cancer was using fructose and glucose together to more than double its growth rate.” Terrifying.
It is important to note, however, that these tests were performed on mice who had been genetically engineered to be prone to cancer, so it might not directly translate to humans, but cutting out high fructose corn syrup is a great idea, whether or not there is a direct link to cancers, because of how closely it’s linked to obesity.