A recent Penn State study has found that young girls who drink soda have unhealthier diets than their peers who don’t drink soft drinks.

The study followed 170 girls for 10 years, between the ages of 5 and 15, documenting meals three times every two years. Girls classified as "soda drinkers" – those who drank roughly four ounces of soda daily at age 5 – showed much lower intakes of fiber, protein, vitamin C, vitamin D, calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, and potassium throughout the study than "non-soda drinkers."

In addition, the girls who drank soda had much higher intake of added sugars in their diets.

Although soda drinkers had less healthy diets in general, both groups failed to meet recommendations for certain nutrients, such as calcium.

The researchers also found that both groups increased their soda consumption by age 15. However, soda drinkers were consuming nearly twice as much soda at age 15 than their counterparts – 6.6 ounces a day versus 3.4 ounces a day.

Although the study has considerable implications on how beverages impact diet, researchers say children may already have developed drinking preferences and patterns by age 5.