This animated video depicts polar bears as consumers of fizzy soft drinks and highlights the real life health side effects of drinking too much.

A MEDICAL expert has called for sugar-laden soft drinks to be taxed so heavily that they become occasional treats instead of everyday staples, amid new research suggesting sugar rather than salt is to blame for high blood pressure.

Head of Discipline of Medicine at the University of Adelaide, Professor Gary Wittert, said sugar-sweetened drinks had no nutritional or hydration value and were a health risk.

“Sugar-sweetened beverages should be a rare pleasure and I would strongly call on governments to regulate them, especially if they are concerned about health budgets,” he said.

“One way to do that is tax — we are consuming tonnes in the diet and people are using drinks like Farmers Union Iced Coffee for hydration instead of water.”

In the American Journal of Cardiology, scientists have reported that sugar is the real culprit behind high blood pressure.

The researchers analysed a series of large-scale international studies — including one that involved more than 8000 French adults — which found no link between salt and high blood pressure.

“It is sugar, not the salt, that may be the actual causative factor for high blood pressure,” the American scientists stated.

“Encouraging consumers to hold the sugar, not the salt, may be the better dietary strategy to achieve blood pressure control.”

They assert that sugar increases blood pressure by acting on part of the brain, causing the heart rate to quicken.

Prof Wittert, who is also Senior Principal Research Fellow at the Centre for Nutrition and Gastrointestinal Diseases at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, urged caution in dismissing salt’s role.

“You don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater — salt is more likely to have an effect in certain subsets of people so it does not negate salt,” he said.

“Most people eat way too much salt and there is decades of research showing the link between salt and blood pressure.

“However, the risks of sugar have been known for some time for things such as weight issues, blood pressure and diabetes.”

Prof Wittert noted while fruits have unrefined sugar they also have fibre and potassium — important for low blood pressure.

He said a commonsense, balanced diet was important for health rather than focusing on one component. Lots of vegetables, salad and water, fruit, small amounts of meat and chicken as well as fish a couple of times a week was a good start.

“People should be looking at their overall dietary pattern,” he said.