Five Ways Soda Puts Your Health in Danger Read more: Five Ways Soda Puts Your Health in Danger Important: At Risk For A Heart Attack? Find Out Now.

Just 100 years ago, the obesity rate in the United States was less than 5 percent. Now, about two-thirds of adults — more than 190 million Americans — are overweight or obese. What's the difference? Many experts believe it's the amount of sugar in our diets, especially the huge amounts of sugar Americans consume each day in the form of soft drinks — often called liquid candy. Here's a breakdown of five main ways soda is killing you: Obesity. Sweetened drinks are the only specific food that clinical research has directly linked to weight gain," says Harvard endocrinologist Dr. David Ludwig. "Highly concentrated starches and sugars promote overeating, and the granddaddy of them all is sugar-sweetened beverages," Ludwig told CNN. The sugar provides huge amounts of calories, but also creates a vicious cycle. "It's rapidly absorbed, which raises blood sugar and in effect causes the body to panic," Ludwig said. When the body releases insulin to metabolize the sugar, blood sugar drops. The body responds by releasing a hormone called ghrelin, which causes hunger and provokes us to eat even more." A study from UCLA found that people who drank at least one soda a day increased their risk of being overweight by 27 percent when compared to those who didn't drink sodas. ALERT: Stop Your Sugar Addiction With These 4 Tips A direct correlation can be seen in California between the rise in the size of an average soda and an increase in obesity. For instance, the average size of a soda increased from 6.5 ounces in the 1950s to an average of 16 ounces today. And in the past 25 years, obesity rates in California have risen from 8.9 percent to 24.3 percent. Diet sodas aren't any better than the sugared varieties. A study presented at a 2011 meeting of the American Diabetes Association found that those who drank diet sodas saw their waist circumference increase by 70 percent, and those who drank two or more diet sodas a day had a 600 percent increase in the circumference of their waists! Heart disease. Sodas definitely aren't good for your ticker. A Harvard study found that drinking a single 12-ounce sugar-sweetened drink each day increased the risk of heart disease by 29 percent. Cardiovascular damage from sodas appears to occur at an early age. A just-released study from the University of Sydney found that children who drank at least one soft drink a day had narrowed arteries in the back part of the eye, indicating an increased risk of high blood pressure and heart disease. A study from researchers at the University of Colorado Denver Health Sciences Center found that a diet high in high-fructose corn syrup, the common sweetener used in soft drinks, increases the risk of developing high blood pressure by up to 87 percent. Soft drinks aren't good for cholesterol levels, either. A study published in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association, found that people who drank one or more soft drinks each day were 25 percent more likely to develop high blood triglycerides (a type of fat), and 32 percent more likely to have low levels of "good" cholesterol. Diet soda isn't any healthier: A new study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine found that people who drank a daily diet soda upped their odds of having a heart attack or stroke by 44 percent. Diabetes. The Nurses' Health Study followed more than 90,000 women for eight years and found that those who drank at least one sugar-sweetened drink each day were almost twice as likely to have developed Type 2 diabetes as those who rarely drank sweetened beverages. Some researchers at Rutgers believe that high-fructose corn syrup, an ingredient in most sugar-sweetened soft drinks, may initiate a string of events in the body that leads to diabetes. Cancer. British researchers discovered that sodium benzoate, used for mold prevention in many soft drinks, has the ability to switch off vital parts of a person's DNA. The result could be cirrhosis of the liver and other degenerative diseases, including Parkinson's. But when mixed with vitamin C, sodium benzoate creates a carcinogenic substance called benzene. Researchers at India's Tata Memorial Hospital found a "very significant correlation" between soft drinks and an increased risk of esophageal cancer. The artificial sweeteners in diet colas may carry even more risks. Aspartame is associated with several major cancers, including pancreatic, leukemia, lymphoma, and breast. Lung problems. Scientists at Australia's University of Adelaide interviewed more than 16,000 people over two years and found a link between soft drinks and asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The more "soft drinks" a person drank, the more likely they were to suffer from asthma or COPD.