When the hour chimes, the body begins to experience a blood sugar crash, which is around the same time a person reaches for their second soda, or for another sweet and sugar snack to suffice. Soda’s connection to the obesity epidemic is so intertwined, Harvard researchers have calculated each additional soda consumed increases the risk of obesity 1.6 times.
In addition to the threat of reaching obese levels, researchers also found after following 40,000 men for two decades, those who drank a sugary beverage each day had a 20 percent increased risk of having a heart attack. The high fructose corn syrup — a cheap replacement for cane sugar — has been associated with increased risk of metabolic syndrome, which leads to diabetes and heart disease.