Link Between Soft Drink & Incidence of Depression

A new study links soft drinks and depression. Researchers followed almost 264,000 people for 10 years. The study demonstrated rather convincingly that people who drink more than four soft drinks per day have a 30% increase in their risk of becoming clinically depressed.

Interestingly, it’s not the sugar, since those who drank diet soda had a slightly higher risk of depression than those who drank the sugared versions. The sugar, of course, will make you fat, raise your cholesterol, and increase your risk of dementia. But there’s something else that’s present in both the diet and sugared versions that seems to increase your risk of developing a depressive disorder.

We don’t yet know what this mechanism is, but a study of this size is persuasive. The take-home message is that water, tea, or unsweetened coffee, are probably your safest beverages.