Cutting back on sugary, fizzy drinks can reduce the risk of suffering from high blood pressure or even a stroke, American scientists have advised.
A team at the Louisiana State University said that cutting back on even one drink a day can lead to reduction of 1.8 mm of mercury in systolic pressure, with this helping to ease blood pressure problems over the long-term.
Drinking two fewer glasses of soft drink a day could reduce the risk of dying from a stroke by around eight per cent, as well as cutting the risk of developing coronary heart disease by as much as five per cent, their research revealed.
Writing in the journal Circulation, study leader Dr Liwei Chen said:
"Our findings suggest that reducing sugar-sweetened beverages and sugar consumption may be an important dietary strategy to lower blood pressure and further reduce other blood pressure-related diseases."
