(KCEN) -- Before you pop the top on that soda can, new research has linked sugar-sweetened beverages with hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide.
New research from the Harvard School of Public Health links over-consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks with 180,000 deaths worldwide each year.
The American Beverage Association responded to the study in a statement, calling it, "More about sensationalism than science."
The sticking point in this research is the added sugar in drinks and does not include low-cal and no-cal beverages sweetened in other ways.
The study suggested Latin America had the highest number of diabetes-related deaths linked to sugary beverages.
