Any time I use the words “soda” and “study” in the same sentence, it’s never good news for soda. I can’t recall a single study that shows soda benefits anything other than the bank accounts of the people who sell it.

And the latest research is no exception.

A new look at data on 42,883 men between the ages of 40 and 75 finds that those who drank the most sugary drinks had a 20 percent higher risk of a heart attack during the 22-year study — a link that held even after adjusting for risk factors such as smoking, activity levels and a family history of heart problems.

What’s more, the researchers found that for each serving of a sugary drink you down in a day — like one 12-ounce cola — your risk of cardiovascular disease is boosted by 19 percent.

In addition, the men who drank the most sugary drinks also had lower levels of HDL cholesterol — that’s the good stuff — and higher levels of deadly triglycerides.

Think that’s bad? Hold on — because the study in Circulation gets even worse: Men who drank the most soda had the highest levels of C-reactive protein, or CRP. That’s an inflammation marker that can mean anything from heart disease to cancer to an autoimmune disorder.

But none of this should be surprising, since all of these problems have been linked to sugar before — and drinks are one of the biggest sources of sugar in the modern diet.

A single can of soda, for example, has roughly 40 grams of the sweet stuff. That’s like going to Starbucks and ordering a “tall” (or what the rest of us call a “small”) 12-ounce coffee… and putting 10 sugars into it.

It’s an insane amount of sugar.

For some incredible visuals on just how much of it is in each can, bottle, and Big Gulp, check out the images on the “Sugar Stacks” website.

All that sweet stuff is bound to play havoc with your body. Along with all the risks I mentioned earlier, even a moderate soda habit can cause your blood sugar levels to spike — eventually leading to metabolic syndrome and even diabetes.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you’ll be any safer switching to diet either. Other studies have found that diet soda drinkers actually gain weight — and at least one study linked diet soft drinks to an increased heart risk of its own, along with an increased risk of stroke.

I’m not done with soda yet — keep reading for more.

Sugar is probably the most dangerous ingredient in most sodas — but I have to say “probably” here, because it’s got some pretty tough competition.

Most sodas aren’t drinks so much as water mixed with a collection of ingredients that seem like they belong in chemistry kits instead of food and beverages.

And that includes the so-called caramel color.

As I told you last year, caramel color isn’t a simple food dye, and it’s nothing like caramel candy like it’s name implies. It’s actually the byproduct of a pressurized treatment that combines sugar with ammonia. (Yes, ammonia!)

One of the “extra” ingredients created by this process is 4-methylimidazole, a chemical with such strong links to cancer that California law requires a warning label on anything that contains certain amounts of it.

And many sodas contain way more than those amounts — up to eight times what the state considers to be the safe upper limit.

Now, soda companies trying to avoid the warning label are starting to use a new version of the color that has less 4-methylimidazole.

But is that really worth celebrating? Soda now has less of a cancer-causing chemical?

And let’s face it, even if they managed to completely do away with caramel color — or at least the 4-methylimidazole — soda would still be bubbling over with cancer risk, thanks to all the sugar.

Diets high in sugar have been linked to any number of cancers — and if you’re unlucky enough to get the disease, sugar will actually help it to grow and spread. It’s like food for tumors.

Believe it or not, the risks don’t stop there.

Sodas often contain phosphates, which can pull calcium from your bones and leave you battling osteoporosis. They can also cause kidney stones and — along with that sugar — rot your teeth right out of your head.

Some sodas even contain sodium benzoate, a preservative that can cause the kind of cell damage that leads to cancer, cirrhosis, and Parkinson’s disease — just to name a few.

And the fake sugars used in diet sodas come with plenty of risks of their own — they’ve been linked to everything from cancer to migraines.

So don’t waste any time looking at the ingredients labels, trying to figure out which soda might be better than the other. Just skip them all.

Let’s face it: There’s nothing “diet” about diet soda. It won’t make you healthier and it won’t even help you to lose weight — and that’s been proven.

But the bad news doesn’t end there. In fact, that’s just the beginning.

Diet soda has been linked to a host of frightening health risks, and a new study confirms two of the worst: People who load up on these supposedly healthy sugar-free drinks have a dramatically higher risk of a heart attack and stroke.

Researchers tracked 2,564 New York City seniors for a decade and found that 31 percent of those who drank diet soda every day suffered a heart attack or stroke versus 22 percent of those drank little to no diet soda.

That’s an increase in risk of 49 percent, according to the data published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

The study doesn’t directly prove that diet soda is responsible — and, in some cases, it could simply be that diet soda drinkers have worse habits.

We all know people who eat tons of junk and then always wash it down with a Diet Coke, right?

But there’s more going on here. Diet sodas contain an ingredient that’s been linked to more side effects than just about any other food additive: the artificial sweetener aspartame.

Aspartame has been linked to high blood pressure, heart palpitations, dizziness, fatigue, sleep disorders and more. Stroke and heart attack would just be the icing on the (sugar-free) cake.

Of course, that’s not a license to drink regular soda, either, and that goes for drinks sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup as well as the ones that scream “MADE WITH REAL SUGAR!” (as if that’s somehow a badge of honor).

All that sugar in any form is a ticket to weight gain, diabetes, and heart disease.

Sweeteners aren’t the only lousy ingredients hidden in a can of soda either. The coloring agents in many have been linked to cancer, the preservatives can cause cell damage and many even have phosphates, which can deprive your bones of calcium and put you at risk for osteoporosis.

And to top it off — as if all that’s not enough — soda is generally served in containers lined with BPA, the hormone-like chemical linked to obesity, diabetes, early menopause, sexual dysfunction, heart disease, and more.

Forget soda in all its forms. If you have to have some fizz, switch to plain old seltzer.

Kids who miss out on sleep aren’t just groggy in school — they’re also far more likely to do all the things that give parents nightmares.

From fistfights to fighting off depression, smoking pot to sucking back sugary drinks, researchers say kids who don’t get the time they need in bed are busy doing other things… and clearly not the things you want your kids doing.

Using data from the 2007 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the researchers found that 69 percent of 12,100 kids between 12 and 18 years old got less than eight hours of sleep a night.

And these children — the vast majority of kids, obviously — were more likely to engage in some of the worst-of-the-worst activities: sex, booze, smoking, marijuana, and fistfights.

It didn’t stop there, either. These kids were also more likely to battle mood problems, including sadness and depression, and even entertain serious thoughts of suicide.

Next to all that, the rest of the “risky” behaviors seem downright tame: The researchers say sleepless kids are more likely to drink a sugary soda each day, get less physical activity, and spend too much time on the computer.

Maybe it’s just that kids who stay up later stay out later — and are more likely to be in situations where they’d engage in risky activities. Or maybe it’s just the fact that, at 69 percent, sleepless kids make up such a huge percentage that they’re more likely to do just about anything.

Whatever the reason, as long as you keep control over what goes on in your home, make sure to set some rules about bedtime — because even if your children aren’t out boozing, smoking pot, and having sex, a lack of sleep could have an impact on everything from their waistlines to their schoolwork.

Remember, a kid may hate the rules of the house — but those same rules will help set either a long lifetime of good habits… or a shorter span of bad ones.