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Is it true that by drinking soft drinks alone, you increase your chances of developing cancer because from what I know, many soft drinks boast 0 calorie drinks and do not contain any known carcinogens.

Butterfly and Bones
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user35897
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    Reliable evidence for a direct causal link between soft drinks and cancer would lead to FDA intervention. – Count Iblis Sep 10 '18 at 16:00
  • @CountIblis does that mean that the notion that soft drink can cause cancer is just another urban legend? – user35897 Sep 10 '18 at 16:08
  • There may be indirect effects, like people who drink a lot of soft drinks tend to eat less fruits, but there is no evidence for an outright cancer causing effect of the chemicals in soft drinks. You have to also consider that the human body is hard at work to eliminate any problems like defective cells that might become the seeds of cancer. That system is quite robust, to derail that system, chemicals with special properties are needed, like dioxin, benzene etc. – Count Iblis Sep 10 '18 at 16:15
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    If you are referring to the myths surrounding aspartame and sucralose, no, neither of those can cause cancer. The former is composed of two common and necessary amino acids (phenylalanine and aspartic acid) and a very small amount of methanol (aka wood alcohol), which is well-tolerated in the amounts found in soft drinks. Sucralose is mostly not even metabolized and passes through the intestinal tract unchanged. The small amount that is metabolized, is just eliminated by the kidneys (and probably the liver). – BillDOe Sep 10 '18 at 19:06
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    @CountIblis Sounds like you have the makings of an answer. – Carey Gregory Sep 11 '18 at 00:42
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    @BillDOe Ditto to you. – Carey Gregory Sep 11 '18 at 00:42
  • Related: https://health.stackexchange.com/questions/46/are-artificial-sweeteners-safe and https://health.stackexchange.com/questions/15944/are-soft-drinks-dangerous-for-health – Chris Rogers Sep 11 '18 at 09:46
  • @CareyGregory, if the OP indicates that this is the information they sought, I'll post as an answer. At this point, I'm not sure that this is, in fact, what the OP was looking for. – BillDOe Sep 11 '18 at 20:39
  • "Reliable evidence for a direct causal link between soft drinks and cancer would lead to FDA intervention." This assumes no money is involved, but this is not the case. Soft drinks are a huge profitable business. – End Anti-Semitic Hate Sep 12 '18 at 14:56

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