A recent research found that people who drink soft drinks – especially the diet variety – is associated with an increased risk of depression in adults while coffee drinkers tend to be less depressed. ‘Sweetened beverages, coffee and tea are commonly consumed worldwide and have important physical—and may have important mental—health consequences,’ study author Honglei Chen, MD, PhD, with the National Institutes of Health in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina and a member of the American Academy of Neurology said.
The study was a long term one that went on for 10 years and involved over 250,000 people. From 1995 to 1996, consumption of drinks such as soft drinks, coffee, fruits juice and coffee was evaluated. Ten years later, researchers asked the participants whether they had been diagnosed with depression since 2000. A total of 11,311 depression diagnoses were made.
People who drank more than four cans or cups per day of soda were 30 per cent more likely to develop depression than those who drank no soda. Those who drank four cans of fruit punch per day were about 38 per cent more likely to develop depression than those who did not drink sweetened drinks. People who drank four cups of coffee per day were about 10 per cent less likely to develop depression than those who drank no coffee. The risk appeared to be greater for people who drank diet than regular soda, diet than regular fruit punches and for diet than regular iced tea.
‘Our research suggests that cutting out or down on sweetened diet drinks or replacing them with unsweetened coffee may naturally help lower your depression risk,’ Chen said.