Just one can of fizzy pop a day can raise heart failure risk by a quarter

Drinking two or more glasses of fizzy or sweetened drinks a day is linked to an increased risk of heart failure, experts have warned. Two 200ml servings - equivalent to just over a can of drink a day - could increase the risk of heart failure by 23%, a study showed. Sweetened drinks have been linked previously to changes in blood pressure as well as insulin and glucose levels. Spanish researchers writing in the journal Heart said this was the first time a link has been made with heart failure after studying 42,000 Swedish men.

Based on their results, the best message for a preventive strategy would be to recommend an occasional consumption of sweetened beverages or to avoid them altogether.

Spanish professor Miguel Martinez-Gonzalez

Dr Gavin Sandercock, a reader in clinical physiology at the University of Essex, said: “ The results of this study are very interesting because they show there is no difference in the effects of drinks which do or do not contain any sugar (sweetened vs artificially sweetened) on the risk of men developing heart failure. "The 23% higher risk of developing heart failure is clearly not, therefore, anything to do with sugar per se. The authors quite rightly suggest that drinking more sweetened beverages is simply an indicator of a poor diet overall.” Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has been campaigning for a sugar tax on fizzy drinks in the UK.

The adults who drank two sweetened drinks a day also drank the most coffee, ate the most processed meat, ate the least vegetables and they had more family history of heart disease.

Dr Gavin Sandercock, a reader in clinical physiology at the University of Essex

Health fizzy drinks