Fruit Punch Can Make you Sad (and fat)

The short version:

• Drinking >4 cans/cups per day of soda, fruit punch, or sweetened iced tea is associated with a higher risk of developing depression 
• this risk is higher for those who drink diet versions of these drinks

The longer version:

An abstract presented at the American Academy of Neurology's Annual Meeting on January 8th examined over 250,000 adults in the United States.  They were asked about their beverage consumption in 1995-1996, and then followed up in 2004-2006 and asked if they had been diagnosed with depression since the year 2000.  Over 11,000 participants reported a diagnosis of depression.  The researchers compared the beverage consumption of those with a depression diagnosis with those without, and found that the ones who had been diagnosed with depression were more likely to have reported consuming more than 4 cups of sweetened beverages (sodas and fruit punches) per day.

So switch to diet versions of you favorite beverages?  No - in fact the researchers found that those who drank diet versions of soda, fruit punches, and iced tea had an even higher risk of developing depression than those who drank non-diet versions.

The good news - caffeine and coffee intake were actually associated with lower risk of depression, so caffeine is not the culprit here.  But this is far from the first bad news for artificial sweeteners and the sugar in regular sweetened beverages.  For years, we in medicine have advised people to switch to diet versions of soft drinks to avoid the empty calories in sugar-sweetened beverages, but recent research shows that this is bad advice.  In coming posts, I will explore what the medical literature says about how the body handles sweetened (both naturally and artificially) beverages.

In the meantime - put down the soda can and try a glass of water.