Energy Drinks Cause Cancer

Question

The claim was if energy drinks caused cancer. Due to my research I found that, not specifically is it energy drinks that cause cancer, but it is sugary/caffeine drinks that can increase colorectal cancer. "Yun says, consuming the equivalent of just one can of soda sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup per day led to the development of more and larger tumors, even though it didn’t affect weight" (MD Anderson Cancer Center). 

Answer 1

Energy drinks themselves do not cause cancer. When "cancer causing" diet habits came up, the article refers to sugary drinks which includes soda, energy, fruity, or sports drinks. The reported study included 95,000 adult women, 109 of which developed colon cancer before turning 50. The risk was highest for women who reported drinking sugary drinks as teenagers. According to the UT Medical Center, there is no scientific link between energy drinks and cancer. But, doctors advise against consuming too much caffeine and sugar regularly, both of which are main ingredients in energy drinks. Of course, having anything high in sugar without moderation can contribute to poorer health down the road, but no, energy drinks do not cause cancer. The excessive consumption of sugar throughout your life puts you at a higher risk for health complications and disease.

Comments

You broke this down well, making it easy to see the difference between general health risks and cancer claims. The quality of your research and the use of reputable sources like the UT Medical Center added a lot of credibility. Great job!

Answer 2

The claim is that energy drinks cause cancer. This claim is false. According to UT Southwestern medical center, "...there is no scientific link between energy drinks and cancer..." Even though there is no scientific link between energy drinks and cancer, the ingredients inside of energy drinks make doctors advise against drinking too much of them. 

https://utswmed.org/medblog/energy-drink-alcohol-cancer/

Comments

my response to this would be, if energy drinks do have chemicals in them that can help foster cancer, and it is only recommended one serving per day as mentioned in the article you linked, would excessive drinking help cause cancer? what would happen if to many drinks were consumed in one day that contain dangerous chemicals, that are linked to causing cancer?

Answer 3

The claim isn't full true. It also takes a lot of the information out of context. “These increases could, at least in part, explain some of the increases in development of colorectal cancer that we’re seeing among younger people.” Like this quote shows instead of considering other factors that could be in place that could also corelate with rising cancer rates, they only provide a single statistic related to energy drinks. The wording they also use works like could to try and link the claims even though there not there.

Comments

Your fact check does a fantastic job of tracing the claim made in the original article and how it could be taken out of context. I'm curious if there are any sources or studies that you could link specifically about energy drinks and their effects.

Answer 4

The first red flag is the claim and the article title are different. The claim refers to energy drinks, whereas the article discusses sugary drinks. The article also claims "The study included more than 95,000 registered nurses between 1991 and 2015." whereas the study itself (Sugar-sweetened beverage intake in adulthood and adolescence and risk of early-onset colorectal cancer among women | Gut) focused on over 95,000 women rather than nurses. 

Some of the facts did align, both the article and the study stated that drinking unsweetened drinks could lower the chance of early-onset colon cancer by 17-36%. Unfortunately, the article also states the test was relevant to people before the age of 50, whereas the study never mentions that. 

Answer 5

The claim stating that energy drinks can give you cancer is not true. According to UTSouthWestern Medical Center; "Although there is no scientific link between energy drinks and cancer, doctors advise against consuming too much caffeine and sugar, both of which are main ingredients in energy drinks. Research finds that adults should have only one serving per day. Due to recent evidence linking daily energy drink intake to heart abnormalities and seizures, regular consumption of energy drinks is not recommended." This states that energy drinks cannot actually increase risk of cancer. 

https://utswmed.org/medblog/energy-drink-alcohol-cancer/

Answer 6

The claim of this article is that energy drinks can cause cancer. The source used is a study done by a doctor within the organization that published this article, the Moffitt Cancer Center. While I do think this article is legitimate I think the claim is not necessarily accurate as I think it is more true that sugary drinks overall can lead to an increased risk in getting cancer rather than specifically energy drinks being a possible cause for cancer.

Comments

Your fact-check on energy drinks and cancer risk makes a good point about the danger of sugary drinks in general. But I think there’s more to consider besides just the sugar. Some studies suggest that certain additives and the high caffeine levels in energy drinks could also add to the health risks, especially if someone drinks them often. It would be interesting to see if you could look into that angle too it might make the overall risk picture even clearer.

Answer 7

According to a study done by UT Southwestern Medicine, "there is no scientific link between energy drinks and cancer" ( utswmed.org ) however the article does also warn against the overuse of energy drinks. In their study they found that " Due to recent evidence linking daily energy drink intake to heart abnormalities and seizures, regular consumption of energy drinks is not recommended. " ( utswmed.org ). 

https://utswmed.org/medblog/energy-drink-alcohol-cancer/

Answer 8

According to this article, energy drinks do not cause cancer. The claim is misleading as the article does not list any correlation between cancer and energy drinks in its research or studies. While the article does seem trustworthy, it focuses on the connection between sugary drinks and cancer instead of energy drinks.

Answer 9

The claim that energy drinks can cause cancer is misleading/exaggerated. Although energy drinks and other sugary drinks can be positively associated with an increased risk of cancer, this doesn’t mean that they will directly cause cancer. Many studies show that overly-sugary drinks show an increase in colon cancer, but again, this does not mean there is direct causation of the disease. 

Government Study Page: This study concludes that the consumption of sugary drinks was positively associated with the risk of overall cancer and breast cancer. In the original source, their study showed that those with higher intake of energy drinks and sugary drinks were also associated with higher risk of the disease. 

This claim is extremely misleading because energy drinks are not the direct cause of cancer. It is, however, partly true because energy drinks are positively associated with an increased risk of cancer. Energy drinks don’t cause cancer, but they do put you at an increased risk of having it.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6614796/