A recent study performed by the National Institutes of Health in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina has shown that sweetened beverages, coffee and tea have important mental health consequences.
In this study, consumption rates of sodas, tea, coffee and sweetened fruit drinks from 1995 to 1996 among 263,925 people aged between 50 and 71 was recorded. About ten years later, the participants were asked if they had been diagnosed with depression at any point since the year 2000.
When they compared the data on drinks consumption with the diagnosis for depression data, the researchers found that participants who consumed more than four cups of soda, either sweetened or diet, per day, were 30% more likely to have been diagnosed with depression than those who consumed none.
On the other hand, coffee consumption appeared to have a different effect. The researchers found participants who drank four cups of coffee per day were about 10% less likely to develop depression than those who drank none.
Chen says although the results still have to be confirmed by further studies, they suggest reducing sweetened diet drinks of replacing them with unsweetened coffee may help lower risks of depression.
