According to a new study review, soft drinks and other sugary beverages can seriously put a person's cardiovascular health in danger. The review authors said the extra sugar added to soft drinks, sweet teas, fruit drinks and energy drinks can increase heart attacks, stroke and other forms of cardiovascular disease risk.

Nutrition research scientist Vasanti Malik at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, said that if an individual consumes just 1 or 2 sugar-sweetened beverages every day, his risk of heart attack or fatal cardiovascular disease gets increase by 35%, the risk of stroke goes up by 16% and 26% increased risk of suffering from type 2 diabetes.

He said, “Reducing consumption of these drinks, it's not going to solve the heart disease epidemic, but it’s one step that can have a measurable impact. It's not the only thing that needs to be done, but it's a very important thing”.

The researchers observed that one main finding of the comprehensive review of studies on the health effects of sweet beverages was the role played by fructose in developing cardiovascular conditions.

Fructose can go in alone unlike other forms of sugar, such as glucose, which are joined by insulin while they move into cells to be used as fuel by body. When processed in the liver, it can be converted into triglycerides.

"Although reducing the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages or added sugar alone is unlikely to solve the obesity epidemic entirely," Hu said, "limiting intake is one simple change that will have a measurable impact on weight control and prevention of cardio-metabolic diseases."