If the empty calories and carbonation of soft drinks are holding you back in the gym, a study published in Diabetologia, the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, will give you something else to consider. Researchers suggest that consuming just one, or one extra, sugar-sweetened soft drink per day can increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 18% to 22%.

One study involved 350,000 subjects from 8 European countries while another looked at the diets of 12,403 individuals with type 2 diabetes. One extra drink was defined as a 12 ounce soda more than someone who drank one per day, so the increased risk of between 18% and 22% was the same for someone who had 2 sodas per day compared to someone who held intake to just one. The range of this increase fell slightly when caloric intake and body-mass index was factored in. Good thing you have plenty of other options for boosting energy and alertness.