(WTNH) — According to a new study, those who drink more than two glasses of soda or any soft drink per day have a high risk of dying.

Experts studied more than 450,000 people from 10 European countries for up to 19 years and found that those who had more than two glasses of soda per day had a higher risk of dying than people who drank less than one glass per month.

The study, published Tuesday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, stated that men or women who drank two or more glasses a day of sugar-sweetened soft drinks had a higher risk of dying from digestive disorders, while those who drank the same amount of diet drinks had higher risks of dying from cardiovascular disease, CNN reports.

The findings note that none of the subjects had cancer, diabetes, heart disease or stroke prior to the study.

“Experimental evidence suggests that high blood sugar and high sugar intake can impair the gut barrier, leading to a ‘leaky gut’ and access to the gut immune system causing intestinal inflammation, alter gut microbiota, and increase susceptibility to gut infections,” said Dr. Sharon Horesh Bergquist, an assistant professor of medicine at Emory School of Medicine in Atlanta. “These pathways may increase susceptibility to digestive diseases.”

Findings also indicated that total soft drink consumption was also associated with an increased risk for Parkinson’s disease but not with Alzheimer’s or cancer.

