A heart surgeon specialising in general, vascular and thoracic surgery, has issued a stark warning about the cardiovascular risks of consuming certain drinks

Dr William Li recently told the Zoe podcast: “Soda is everyone’s favourite whipping boy. Rightfully so.

“The preponderance of clinical evidence, public health evidence, shows that high consumption of soda is associated with everything from metabolic disease to cardiovascular disease to cancer risk.

“But is it the sugar? Is glucose that demonic element that we need to crucify?

“Answer’s no. Soda is not just water, otherwise that’d be just carbonated water. But soda itself has all these additives, colours, flavourings, preservatives, stabilisers… that is accumulated exposure to toxins. It’s not one exposure, it’s the chronic exposure over time.”