|| 11 July 2019

French Study Suggests Sugar - Cancer Link

The first important French lesson in staying slim I learned those years ago was to give up sugared soft drinks. Alas, I had been drinking them since a young child. And here I was in my 20s. I also noted that chic French women did not drink fruit juice for breakfast. Just café au lait with their tartine.

That was the 1960s. So it was a surprise when I returned to France in the 1980s and found (especially young) French women drinking sugared soft drinks. As we have progressed to 2019, the consumption of sugared drinks in France has grown. Not just soft drinks. I understand it is common for French women to have fruit juice with breakfast. (And they are even eating breakfast cereal ! Oh, dear.) With the sugared drinks consumption increase has grown the problem with obesity.

A recent study by Inserm, the French national institute of health and medical research, has found an even more disturbing problem with the consumption of sugared drinks: a link between sugar and cancer.

The study, carried out in France, is the first substantial piece of research to find a specific association between sugar and cancer. Sugary drinks such as colas, lemonade and energy drinks have been linked to obesity, which is a cause of cancer — but the French researchers suggest there could also be other reasons sugar could trigger it.

You can read more about the study in this article in The Guardian.

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