"The investigators examined changes in sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and then its association with change in body fatness or BMI (body mass index), and subsequent deaths from cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer, " says Rachel Johnson, professor of nutrition at the University of Vermont in Burlington and chair of the American Heart Assocation's Nutrition Committee, who was not involved in the study.

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As the authors, Bremer et al., note in Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Intake Trends in US Adolescents and Their Association with Insulin Resistance-Related Parameters, (J Nutr Metab. 2010), teens who are low and medium soda drinkers consume considerably less sugar sweetened beverages than high consumers (an overall mean consumption between .05 and 2.5 servings per day respectively, compared to an overall mean of 7.1 servings, or 57 ounces per day).

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