Childhood consumption of sugary drinks now linked to increased adult hypertension risk, study finds

A long-term US study indicates that drinking sugary beverages during childhood, including fizzy drinks and fruit juices, significantly raises the risk of developing high blood pressure in adulthood, with whole fruit and water offering healthier alternatives.

A long-running US study suggests that when it comes to later blood-pressure risk, the key issue may be less sugar in the abstract than the form it takes. Children and teenagers who more often drank sugary beverages, including fizzy drinks and sports drinks, or larger amounts of fruit juice were more likely to develop hypertension by adulthood, while whole fruit was not associated with the same pattern. The research was published in Circulation on 22 June 2026 and was subsequently highlighted in a short JAMA commentary and by the University of Toronto. (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

The work was led by Vasanti Malik of the University of Toronto and Harvard, with former doctoral researcher Michelle Nguyen as first author. It drew on the Growing Up Today Study, combining two enrolment waves launched in 1996 and 2004. In all, 25,479 participants entered the study at ages 9 to 16 and were followed through 2021, filling in repeated questionnaires on diet, lifestyle and health every one to four years. The cohort was about 55 per cent female and 96 per cent white, and about 6.3 per cent reported a hypertension diagnosis over roughly 25 years of follow-up, with a median age of onset of 36. (newsroom.heart.org)

The clearest result concerned sugary drinks overall. Compared with participants who had fewer than three servings a week, those consuming two or more 12-ounce servings a day had a 52 per cent higher risk of later hypertension. The risk also rose by drink type: each extra daily serving of fizzy drink was associated with a 23 per cent increase, and each sports drink with a 36 per cent increase. Researchers said those links persisted after taking account of overall diet quality, physical activity and other measured factors, suggesting the beverages were not merely a marker for a generally less healthy lifestyle. (newsroom.heart.org)

Fruit juice did not emerge as a harmless alternative at higher intakes. Participants drinking at least 1.5 servings a day had a 35 per cent higher risk than those who had less than one serving a week, and orange juice showed the strongest individual association, with each daily serving linked to a 20 per cent increase. Apple juice and other juices did not show the same pattern. Both the researchers and The Independent noted an important caveat, however: some orange-flavoured drinks containing added sugar may have been reported as orange juice. (newsroom.heart.org)

The substitution analysis offered the most practical takeaway. Replacing one daily sugary drink with whole fruit was associated with a 22 per cent lower risk of hypertension, while swapping fruit juice for whole fruit was linked to a 19 per cent reduction. Replacing sugary drinks with milk or water was also associated with lower risk, although the effect was smaller: the cardiology summary put the reductions at 13 per cent for milk and 9 per cent for water. The American Heart Association’s account added that replacing fruit juice with milk or water did not show a significant association. (newsroom.heart.org)

Malik said the findings showed that “Dietary habits in early life can have lasting health consequences.” Speaking through the University of Toronto, she argued that the “source and form” of sugar mattered more than the nutrient on its own, and she told Harvard and the American Heart Association that sugary drinks should be limited and that even 100 per cent fruit juice should be consumed in moderation. That reading matches one of the paper’s most striking findings: total fructose intake itself was not associated with hypertension, but liquid sources of sugar were. (newsroom.heart.org)

Amit Khera, a preventive cardiologist at UT Southwestern who commented on the findings for the American Heart Association, said the childhood-to-adulthood design created a “critical opportunity for prevention”. He also said the study challenged two common assumptions: that fructose is equally harmful regardless of source, and that fruit juice is automatically beneficial. Even so, the paper has limits. It was observational, relied on self-reported diet, body measurements and hypertension diagnoses, and was conducted in a cohort that was overwhelmingly white, which the authors said limited how far the findings could be generalised. (newsroom.heart.org)

That means the study does not prove sweet drinks alone caused high blood pressure. But it does provide unusually long-run evidence in an area more often examined over shorter periods, and JAMA‘s 10 July 2026 commentary framed the signal as one that may begin early, effectively “starting in childhood”. With hypertension increasingly appearing earlier in life, the authors’ main public-health message was simple: whole fruit, water and milk look like better bets than a routine habit of fizzy drinks, sports drinks or juice. (jamanetwork.com)