Link Found Between Diet Soda, Depression

A new study may make you think twice before drinking a Diet Coke.

Scheduled to be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 65th Annual Meeting in San Diego, researchers found that people who are diet soda drinkers are more likely to develop depression.

The study followed 263,925 people between the ages of 50 and 71 for 10 years and mapped the occurrence of depression to consumption of drinks like soda, tea, fruit punch and coffee.

They found:

* Drinkers of four cans or cups of soda a day were 30% more likely to develop depression than non-soda drinkers

* People who drank four cans of fruit punch a day were 38% more like to develop depression than those who didn’t drink sweetened drinks

* People who drank four cups of coffee per day were 10% less likely to develop depression than those who who didn’t drink coffee

Dr. Honglei Chen, MD, PhD, from the National Institutes of Health and the author of the study said, “Sweetened beverages, coffee and tea are commonly consumed worldwide and have important physical — and may have important mental—health consequences.”

He continued, “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.”