Sodas, Sugary Drinks May Raise BP Feb. 28, 2011 -- New research suggests that drinking sodas and other sugar-sweetened beverages every day may raise blood pressure, but a beverage industry trade group calls the study significantly flawed.

Sugar-sweetened beverages are the No. 1 source of added sugars in the American diet, and the research is among the first to link them to higher blood pressure.

The study found that the more sugary sodas and other sugar-sweetened beverages people drank, the higher their blood pressures tended to be.

Every extra sugar-sweetened beverage drank per day was associated with a 1.6 point rise in systolic blood pressure (the upper number) and a 1 point rise in diastolic pressure (the lower number).

The highest blood pressures were seen in study participants who drank the most sugar-sweetened beverages and also had the most added salt in their diets, study co-author Ian J. Brown, PhD, tells WebMD.

“We know that salt is a risk factor for high blood pressure,” Brown says. “But our findings suggest that sugar and salt together may be worse than salt alone.”

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