A sweeping 25-year study has found that children who regularly drink soda, sports drinks, or fruit juice face a significantly higher risk of high blood pressure as adults — and the numbers are striking enough to reshape how nutritionists counsel families on everyday beverages.
What the Study Found
Published on June 22, 2026, in Circulation — the journal of the American Heart Association — the research tracked 25,000 participants who were recruited between ages 9 and 16 and followed for up to 25 years. Each additional daily 12-ounce serving of soda was tied to a 23% higher risk of hypertension in adulthood; sports drinks carried a 36% elevated risk per serving; and children who drank 12 ounces or more of fruit juice every day faced a 35% greater likelihood of developing high blood pressure. At two or more combined sugary servings a day, the risk jumped to 52% compared with peers who drank fewer than three servings per week. As Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health reports, the findings held across both cohorts of the Growing Up Today Study — children enrolled in 1996 and those enrolled in 2004.
Why It Matters
High blood pressure is no longer an adults-only concern: rates of hypertension among children and teenagers have been climbing steadily, and early dietary patterns appear to lock in trajectories that persist for decades. The study’s senior author, Vasanti Malik, adjunct assistant professor of nutrition at Harvard Chan School, noted that the effect was not confined to sugary sodas — pure fruit juice, long regarded as a healthier alternative, showed a comparable risk increase, likely because of the concentrated fructose load it delivers without the fiber of whole fruit.
What to Swap In
The good news embedded in the data is a clear substitute signal: replacing one daily serving of a sugary beverage with whole fruit, milk, or plain water was associated with a measurably lower hypertension risk. For practitioners advising young patients and their parents, the message is straightforward — cut liquid sugar early, and the cardiovascular benefit shows up years, even decades, later.