Limit consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks. Drink mostly water and unsweetened drinks.
We often don’t think about drinks containing calories. However, there is strong evidence that regularly drinking sugar-sweetened drinks can cause weight gain which in turn can cause many cancers.
> Read our Q&A on aspartame and its cancer risk
Three simple alternatives to fizzy or sugary drinks that will help to reduce your cancer risk.
Natural fruit juice is a source of healthy nutrients but also contains a lot of sugar and has lost most of the fibre you would get by eating the whole fruit, so it is best not to drink more than one glass (150ml) a day.
Diet drinks are an alternative to sugar-sweetened drinks too. There’s no strong evidence in humans to suggest that low-calorie, artificially-sweetened drinks, such as diet soft drinks, are a cause of cancer.
However, the evidence that these types of drinks help prevent weight gain, being overweight and obese is not consistent. Artificially-sweetened soft drinks are also often quite acidic which is bad for our teeth, so it’s best not to drink them regularly or in large quantities.
