Research

Mixed

High consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) increases the risk of incident coronary heart disease (CHD) in men, independent of traditional risk factors like BMI and type 2 diabetes.

If you drink sugary sodas or fruit punches regularly, you are increasing your risk of heart disease. This risk exists even if you are not overweight or have normal blood sugar. Switching to water or unsweetened beverages is a key step for heart health. Diet sodas do not appear to carry the same risk, but they are not a 'health food' either.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Participants in the top quartile of sugar-sweetened beverage intake had a 20% higher relative risk of CHD than those in the bottom quartile (relative risk=1.20; 95% confidence interval, 1.09 –1.33; P for trend <0.01) after adjustment for... body mass index... and dieting.
Lawrence de Koning et al. · Circulation · 2012

Why this rating

Large prospective cohort study (n=42,883) with long follow-up (22 years) and rigorous adjustment for confounders, though observational design prevents causal proof.

Source

Sweetened Beverage Consumption, Incident Coronary Heart Disease, and Biomarkers of Risk in Men

Lawrence de Koning et al. · Circulation · 2012

DOI 10.1161/circulationaha.111.067017

cohort · n=42883Cited 506×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →