If the state’s new so-called soda-and-candy tax generates additional state revenues, as intended, it likely means Coloradans are drinking lots of soda. And now, there’s even more evidence that the saccharine stuff is bad for us.

Many sodas are sweetened with fructose, which, according to a new report by a University of Colorado researcher, can wreak as much havoc on your blood pressure as salt. People who consume 2.5 or more cans per day of non-diet soda containing fructose—a type of sugar and a key ingredient in high-fructose corn syrup—face at least a 30 percent increased risk for hypertension, according to Health.com.

The study appears in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology and focuses on sugary foods like soda, fruit punch, cookies, candy, and chocolate.

“The data is very consistent with what has been in other papers,” says Michael Chonchol of CU’s Health Sciences Center in Denver (via Reuters). Cutting back on sugary foods, he says, can help lower not just weight but also blood pressure, and reduce risk for heart and kidney diseases.