Fizzy pop risking your heart

You may want to starting avoiding that soda pop as a team of researchers has warned that drinking just over one can of sugary drink a day dramatically increases the risk of heart problems.

Drinking just one can of fizzy drink a day can raise your risk of heart failure by 23 percent, the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm study says, the Mirror reported.

A further analysis, excluding people diagnosed with heart failure in the first five years, showed the link still held true.

The researchers warned that because it was an observational study, no conclusion could be drawn to say sweetened drinks definitely caused heart failure.

They stressed that the study only involved older white men and the findings may not be applicable to younger age groups, women or certain ethnic groups.

In an accompanying editorial, Spanish professors Miguel Martinez-Gonzalez and Miguel Ruiz-Canela said people who drink a lot of sweetened drinks often have a poor diet overall, which is more of a determinant of ill-health than any one component.

The study appears in the journal Heart.