If you drink sweetened beverages, in any forms that is, may be linked to a higher risk for depression. However, taking coffee may have a lower risk. This is the result of a new study which is to be presented in March in the American Academy of Neurology in San Diego.
According to the said study, those who took sweetened beverages both regular and diet sodas and other forms like fruit punch and sweetened iced tea had a higher risk for depression. The researchers say that their findings suggest that decreasing sweetened drinks and totally replacing them with non-sweetened beverages may help in lowering the risk of depression. Click here for more.
However, an expert who tried to review the study said it failed to convince him that drinking sweetened beverages can really raise the risk for depression. “There is much more evidence that people who are depressed crave sweet things than there is to suggest that sweetened beverages cause depression,” says Dr. Kenneth Heilman, a neurologist and a professor of neurology at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville.
The said study gathered about 264, 000 people aging 50 and are enrolled in AARP diet and health study. The moment they entered the study, participants were asked regarding their habits of drinking beverages. This is a part of a detailed dietary survey. After 10 years, they were asked again if they had been diagnosed with depression during the previous decade. When the analysis was released, it showed that people who took more than four cans or cups of diet soda in a single day had 30% higher risk of having depression as compared to those who drank nothing. Those who had regular soda only had 22% risk.
On the other hand, those who drank coffee had 10% reduction in risk for depression. As figures show, diet beverages appear to be more associated with higher risk for depression as compared to regular sugar-sweetened beverages.
The researchers of this study have noted that more research is needed to make some confirmations. They have also warned people who have depression to continue in taking all their medications as prescribed by their doctors. “While our findings are preliminary, and the underlying biological mechanisms are not known, they are intriguing and consistent with a small but growing body of evidence suggesting that artificially sweetened beverages may be associated with poor health outcomes,” says Honglei Chen a researcher and a doctor of the National Institutes of Health in Research Triangle Park, N.C.
Heilman, who is a member of the American Academy of Neurology, says that the mere fact that carbonated and non-carbonated sweetened beverages are linked to the increase of depression risk as did drinks sweetened with sugar and non-calorie sweeteners make him questions the research itself.
He emphasizes that there’s huge evidence that suggests people who are undergoing depression or having higher risk seek to take sweet foods and drinks to make themselves comfortable. He says, “The main point is that you can never show cause and effect in a study like this one, by telling people to cut down on sugar-sweetened drinks you may be reducing depression risk or having no impact or having the opposite effect and making depression worse.”
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