Researchers have come to some data that suggests that there is a connection between drinking soft drinks and a medical condition known as Metabolic Syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is a condition that entails increased risk to heart disease, obesity and diabetes.

Although researchers have no concrete proof as of yet, they have a case on association. Even if soft drinks aren't the cause of metabolic syndrome, it may still be a sign of something else. Dr Ramachandran Vasan, professor of Medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine, believes that while drinking soft drinks is a marker or how a subject likes sweet foods, it is not necessarily the cause of the syndrome itself.

Other factors may be the culprits, ranging from other types of food intake, lack of exercise and smoking. The research consisted of more than 6,000 participants. Four years of studying this group has shown that those who drink even one can of soft drinks a day is 44% more likely to get metabolic syndrome.

While drink soft drinks may not be the cause, Dr. Suzanne R. Steinbaum, director of Women and Heart Disease at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, says that it certainly doesn't help avoid it.