Sugary drinks are killing as many as 184,000 adults around the world each year, medical experts have estimated.
They say in 2010 an estimated 133,000 deaths were from diabetes, 45,000 from cardiovascular disease and 6,450 from cancer.
"Many countries in the world have a significant number of deaths occurring from a single dietary factor, sugar-sweetened beverages," said the study's senior author Dr Dariush Mozaffarian.
"It should be a global priority to substantially reduce or eliminate sugar-sweetened beverages from the diet."
The research, from Tufts University in Boston and published in the American Heart Association's Circulation journal, is the first detailed global report assessing deaths attributable to sugar-sweetened beverages.
They were defined as any sugar-sweetened fizzy drinks, fruit drinks, sports/energy drinks, sweetened iced teas or homemade sugary drinks.
Pure fruit juice was excluded.
The researchers analysed 62 dietary surveys covering 611,971 people, conducted between 1980 and 2010 across 51 countries, along with data on national availability of sugar in 187 countries, and other information.
"There are no health benefits from sugar-sweetened beverages, and the potential impact of reducing consumption is saving tens of thousands of deaths each year," Dr Mozaffarian said.
Dr Neville Howard from the Australian Diabetes Council said the disease and high intakes of sugary drinks were a bad mix.
"Our advice is that there should be minimal intake of them, whatever the type of diabetes," he said.
Australian Beverages Council CEO Geoff Parker described the report as "scaremongering".
"In no way does the study show that soft drink consumption is a unique cause of diabetes, cardiovascular disease or cancer," he said.
"Focusing on soft drink consumption alone misses the bigger picture of the causes of chronic diseases.
"The study provides no evidence, related to consumption alone, when they incorrectly take beverage intake calculations from around the globe and allege that those beverages are the cause of deaths, which the authors themselves acknowledge are due to chronic disease."
He noted that the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 suggests the biggest causes of mortality or poor health in Australia include factors such as obesity, smoking, poor diet and low physical activity.
"Sugar sweetened beverage consumption ranked low in comparison." he said.
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