Cola could be killing your brain. At least, that's the suggestion of a new Swedish study linking soda to an increased risk of strokes.

The study, published in the Journal of Nutrition, found that people who drank more than two sodas per day had a 22 percent higher risk of having a stroke than people who consumed somewhere around two sodas per week. That was even after accounting for the fact that people who drank sweetened beverages also tended to have worse diets overall.

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Of course, this was an association study, and the information was gleaned from comparing food questionnaires with medical records. And comparisons like that make it difficult to say that sodas cause strokes. The authors note that sodas are known to increase metabolic disorders that are known risk factors for strokes, such as obesity, high blood sugar, and high triglyceride levels. So it could be that the fact that sodas lead to weight gain, which causes strokes, and that's what's at work here.

At the same time, diet sodas have been linked themselves to increased stroke risk. Studies in Japan and the U.S. have found that stroke risk in women and men who drank either regular or diet sodas more than once a day was about 16 percent higher than people with less-frequent consumption.

So ditch the liquid sugar! If you need a healthy drink and water just won't cut it, try one of these healthy recipes:

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