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Western diets seem to be unusually high on sugar, which tends to shoot up the risk of cancer. Scientists at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in a study looked at mice that were "genetically predisposed to breast cancer" and discovered that mice fed more sugar showed bigger tumors than those who were not.

In four different studies, mice were classified into various diet groups.

"We were very careful in our research to expose the animals to the equivalent standard sugar dosages of what humans consume," study author Lorenzo Cohen of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, told Science World Report.

According to scientists, the lowest dose for the mice was 9 teaspoons of sugar a day, and the highest dose was 37 teaspoons in one day.

The American Heart Association (AHA) explained that adult women should consume just up to 5 teaspoons (20 grams) of added sugar per day while adult men can take in 9 teaspoons of added sugar per day (36 grams).

So most of the food around us is worrying. If you drink just one can of soda, you can cross 10 teaspoons of sugar in some 12-ounce cans of soda (or 40 grams).

"At six months of age, 30 percent of mice on a starch-control diet had measurable tumors, whereas 50 to 58 percent of the mice on sucrose-enriched diets had developed mammary tumors. The study also showed that numbers of lung metastases were significantly higher in mice on a sucrose- or a fructose-enriched diet, versus mice on a starch-control diet," according to scienceworldreport.

Recent findings  published in the journal Nature, show that most cancer deaths are caused by western lifestyles. But now it is clear that the poor diet and too much sugar is causing the cancers.

Still, not all sugars are equally applicable. While glucose, an important nutrient that creates energy, is not to be blamed, sucrose, or sugar, is the culprit. It is composed of glucose and fructose too. Hence, fructose is responsible for the illness.

Scientists find that fructose affects a metabolic process, leading to the spread of cancer.

The study is published on Jan. 1,2016 in the journal Cancer.