By Eric Metcalf

If you’ve ever shaken up a can of soda, you know that the contents are under a lot of pressure. And if you drink too many of them, your pressure could go up, too.

In a study published online in February in the journal Hypertension, researchers looked into whether the beverages people drank might influence their blood pressure. They included nearly 2,700 middle-aged and older people from around the United States and the United Kingdom. All the participants gave several reports of what they had eaten and drunk in the previous 24 hours and underwent eight blood pressure measurements.

The researchers paid special attention to sugar-sweetened beverages. These included regular sodas, lemonade, and fruit drinks aside from 100-percent fruit juice. Drinking more sugar-sweetened beverages was related to higher blood pressure. Each 12-ounce serving per day was related to about a 1-point higher systolic blood pressure (the first number in a blood-pressure reading), and about a half-point higher diastolic pressure (the second number in the reading).

In addition, they found that people who drank more of these sugary drinks had a poorer-quality diet overall. As a result, they concluded that just as reducing sodium in your diet is a good idea for heart health, cutting back on sugary drinks and added sugar in your diet may also be wise.

A soda habit is easy to maintain … and it can be hard to kick. But if you’re drinking a lot of them, keep in mind that just one or two regular sodas can provide a sizeable percentage of the calories you need for the whole day – and a lot of sugar you probably don’t need. Here are a few suggestions on quitting:

• Start with water. Ideally, you’ll meet most of your fluid needs as water. Yes, it’s pretty boring as far as drinks go. But you can liven up a glass of water like restaurants do, with a tangy splash of lemon juice or other juices.
• Check out the tea aisle in your supermarket. If you want a variety of other flavors in your water, brew a cup of tea. You can find plenty of exotic teas, such as green tea or fruit-flavored tea, which you can enjoy hot or cold, and caffeinated or decaf.
• Go for juices. Remember not to go overboard on fruit or vegetable juices, since these can also add a lot of sugar or sodium to your diet. If you have some juice, water it down a bit to fill your glass with fewer calories.
• Drink more milk. Skim milk or soy milk can be a healthy way to get more fluid and provide the calcium that your bones need to stay healthy.

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