Drinking too many sugary beverages appears to raise the risk of high blood pressure, experts are warning.
Findings suggest blood pressure goes up incrementally for every extra can of sugary drink consumed per day.
Drinking more than 355ml a day of sugar-sweetened fruit juice or carbonated drink can be enough to upset the balance, data on over 2,500 people reveals.
The study by UK and US researchers appears in the journal Hypertension.
The precise mechanism behind the link is unclear, but scientists believe too much sugar in the blood disrupts blood vessel tone and salt levels in the body. Non-sugar sweetened diet drinks did not carry the same risk.
The soft drink industry maintains that the beverages are safe to drink "in moderation".
The American Heart Association says people should drink no more than three 355ml cans of soda a week.
For the study, the participants who were aged 40-59 from the UK and the US were asked to record what they had eaten in the preceding 24 hours on four separate occasions. They also provided a urine sample and had their blood pressure measured.
The researchers found that sugar intake was highest in those consuming more than one sugar-sweetened beverage daily.
They also found that individuals consuming more than one serving per day of sugar-sweetened beverages consumed more calories than those who didn't consume sugary drinks - around 397 extra calories a day.
For every extra can of sugary drink consumed per day, participants on average had a higher systolic blood pressure by 1.6mmHg and a higher diastolic blood pressure by 0.8mmHg.
Overall, the people who consumed a lot of sugar-sweetened beverages appeared to also have less healthy diets and were more likely to be overweight.
But regardless of this, the link with blood pressure was still significant even after adjusting for factors such as weight and height. BBC News
