Jun 29, 2015 06:24 PM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

New research suggests that people who drink large amounts of orange juice or lemonade may be raising their risk of developing melanoma, a life-threatening form of skin cancer.

Researchers found that People who ate citrus fruits two to four times per week had a 10 percent increased risk of the skin cancer compared to those who ate citrus fruit less than twice a week. However, investigators caution that the results from their "observational study may not reflect the whole U.S. population," Reuters reported.

"At this point in time it is not a good idea to avoid citrus fruits," Dr. Walter Willett of the Harvard School of Public Health, who worked on the study, told NBC News.

For the study, researchers  collected and analyzed data from more than 63,000 in the Nurses' Health Study and 41,000 men in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. For more than 20 years, researchers collected data on the study participants' dietary patterns every two to four years.

Based on their findings, the risk of developing the deadly form of skin cancer was low overall  -- "fewer than 2 percent of the people in the study got melanoma in the 25 years," NBC News reported. However, that risk was 36 percent higher in people who consumed at least 1.6 six-ounce servings of citrus fruit or juice daily compared to those who consumed less than two servings per week.

But that risk was 36 percent higher in people who ate or drank at least 1.6 six-ounce servings of citrus fruit or juice daily compared to those who consumed them less than twice per week.

Researchers said the link between citrus fruits and melanoma is plausible because "certain compounds in citrus explain the association," said  Dr. Abrar Qureshi, senior author of the study.

According to HealthDay, citrus fruits contains a certain compounds that are known to make the skin more sensitive to the sun when applied to its surface.

"You'll see children get a sunburn in spots where a citrus popsicle dripped down the chin, for example," Qureshi told HealthDay.

The findings are detailed in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. 

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