Sodas, fruit juices and sugary sports drinks are not good for your heart.

A new review suggests that drinking sugar-sweetened beverages could not only lead to weight gains but increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions that raises your risk of heart disease.

“Some studies found that consuming as few as two servings of sugar-sweetened beverages a week was linked to an increased risk of metabolic syndrome, diabetes and heart disease and stroke,” said the review’s senior author Faadiel Essop, a professor at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.

“Others found that drinking at least one sugar-sweetened beverage per day was associated with elevated blood pressure,” he said.

The review included studies done within the past 10 years.

“Those consuming sugary drinks do not feel as full as those who eat solid food, even though they have the same amount of calories,” Essop noted, “and may therefore eat or drink more.”

Dr Joel Zonszein, director of the clinical diabetes centre at Montefiore Medical Centre in New York City, said that fruit offers a good example.

“If you eat an apple, you get full much easier. In addition to sugar, an apple has a lot of fibre and the satiety is much better. But when you have a glass of apple juice, you’re getting the sugar from three to four apples and no fibre. That’s a much more concentrated dose of sugar that will spike the blood sugar level,” he explained.