There comes a time in the afternoon when we all could use a boost. For me that usually looks like a few squares of chocolate or an occasional espresso. When I'm feeling a bit healthier, perhaps an apple or a pear. But for many folks, soda is a routine. Some feel it's even a habit — one that's hard to break. Well there is a new study out asserting that that afternoon cola may actually be bringing your mood down.
A new study presented by the American Academy of Neurology found a pretty clear link between soda consumption and depression. Researchers investigated the beverage consumption of 263,925 people and found clear evidence that something about soda was affecting consumers' moods: People who drank more than four servings of soda per day were 30 percent more likely to develop depression than participants who did not drink soda at all.
→ Read the full article: Sweet Sodas and Soft Drinks May Raise Your Risk of Depression, Study Finds at Shine
Sure, I think it's important to recognize this is a preliminary study and there are always so many other factors to weigh and consider. But the evidence is interesting, especially when you consider that adults who drank coffee had a 10 percent lower risk of depression. So it's not the caffeine. Is it the sugar? Is it the fact that individuals who drink soda routinely are more prone to other habits that may not be healthy?
→ More on sugar in soda: How Sweet Is It? at Harvard School of Public Health
Related: Ill Effects: Soda Pop Consumption Affects Your Body
(Image: NJ Beverage)
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It is also possible that people who are depressed tend to consume more sugar as a pick-me-up. The correlation appears clear, but the causation is not.
I'm more worried about all the people I know that claim to be addicted (and suffer withdrawl) from freaking Diet Coke. Seriously, did Coca Cola go back to the 'old recipe' or something?
@ jess13, I understand there are also studies linking diet pop with depression.
Wow, this is badly written. I know you guys aren't science writers, but saying "researchers investigated the beverage consumption of 263,925 people and found clear evidence that something about soda was affecting consumers' moods" is just completely off base, and shows a profound lack of understanding of the scientific method. Echoing what @Twilliams (and anyone else with even the most tenuous grasp of basic statistics) has said: correlation =/= causation.
Regardless of the strength of these findings, the good news is that you can go through your whole life drinking no soda at all and be none the worse off for it.
Amen brother.
Yikes. I second what others have commented. In fact, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this is not only poorly written, but *irresponsibly* written. We have the causation/correlation problem, well-described by others above. Then we have the fact that the author implicates "the sugar" as the possible "cause" in the second to last sentence, even though the study actually showed a stronger link between artificially-sweetened beverages and depression than sugar-sweetened beverages and depression. (By the way, the study looked at more beverages than just soda.) Finally, and perhaps most egregious, a Yahoo article is not a credible scientific source! I'm not sure if the results of this study have been published yet because it looks like they will be presented at a conference in March. But here are a couple more credible sources for anyone who is interested in finding out what this study was actually about:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130108162135.htm
http://www.aan.com/press/index.cfm?fuseaction=release.view&release=1128
I'm not a scientist by the way. These are just basic critical thinking skills. I love that you have these nutrition blurbs here on The Kitchn, but it doesn't help anyone if they are misleading.
FWIW, I totally agree with @manjar. There are plenty of good reasons to avoid soda. :-)