Soda sweetened with sugar can promote diease separately from its role in obesity, a new study finds. The study, conducted by researchers from UC San Francisco, indicates that consumption of sugary drinks was linked to cell aging.

According to the study, telomeres, or protective units of DNA that cap the ends of chromosomes within cells, were shorter among the white blood cells of study participants who reported drinking more soda. The findings were reported online in the October 16, 2014 edition of the American Journal of Public Health.

The length of telomeres in white blood cells, where it is most easily measured, has been previously linked to human lifespan. Short telomeres have also been connected with the development of chronic age-related diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, and certain types of cancer.

The study’s senior author, Elissa Epel, PhD, professor of psychiatry at UCSF, said in a statement, “Regular consumption of sugar-sweetened sodas might influence disease development, not only by straining the body’s metabolic control of sugars, but also through accelerated cellular aging of tissues.”

Epel continued, “This is the first demonstration that soda is associated with telomere shortness. This finding held regardless of age, race, income and education level. Telomere shortening starts long before disease onset. Further, although we only studied adults here, it is possible that soda consumption is associated with telomere shortening in children, as well.”

According to onecanofsoda.com, a regular soda can contains 12 ounces of liquid, with most yielding around 40 grams, or 10 sugar packets, per can.