Sugary Drinks Linked To High Blood Presure

Interesting:

Each extra serving of sugar-sweetened beverage daily led to an elevation of systolic blood pressure of 1.6 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) and an elevation of diastolic blood pressure by 0.8 mm Hg higher blood pressure readings, reported Ian Brown of Imperial College London and colleagues. This didn’t hold for diet beverages: In fact, the opposite relationship was seen for diet drinks. The finding appeared to be stronger for those who consumed more sodium and was independent of caffeine, plus the researchers did try to control for other lifestyle factors as well as height and weight.

Now, why would that be? I would think most artificial sweeteners are more-potent than sugar. You'd need less substance to create equal sweetness, so the osmotic pressure of the blood would be lower with artificial sweeteners. But maybe that's different than blood pressure....

In any event:

Finally, here, as listed in the paper, are a few items that seem to be firmly linked to high blood pressure: “high sodium intake, inadequate potassium intake, high body mass index (BMI), and excessive alcohol intake.”

The first three, I've got covered. I just bought a bottle of Kahlua, so maybe I've got the fourth one covered too....