Drinking diet soda linked to depression

[FarCenter]

Diet drinks may taste good, but they might not bring happiness. A new study finds that people who drink diet sodas or fruit drinks are more likely to be diagnosed with depression.

The study doesn't show that diet drinks cause depression and the researchers stress their findings don't provide an explanation. They looked at more than 263,900 U.S. adults ages 50 to 71 who answered questions about their beverage consumption between the years 1995 and 1996. About 10 years later (from 2004 to 2006), the same people were asked if a doctor had diagnosed them with depression since the year 2000.

People who regularly drank four or more cans of any type of soda a day were 30 percent more likely to have received a diagnosis of depression than people who did not drink soda, said Dr. Honglei Chen of the National Institutes of Health, who led the study. The risk of depression was especially high for people who drank diet soda — a 31 percent increased risk compared to a 22 percent increased risk for those who drank regular soda, the researchers said.

Those who drank four or more cans of diet fruit drinks were 51 percent more likely to be diagnosed with depression compared to those who did not drink diet fruit drinks.

By contrast, people who drank four or more cups of coffee a day were 10 percent less likely to have been diagnosed with depression compared to non-coffee drinkers.

http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/08/16417285-drinking-diet-soda-linked-to-depression

[HappyMe]

1. Drinking diet soda would depress me

because it tastes so crappy.

[virgogal]

2. Ditto,and then some. I hate all diet foods and drinks.

[elleng]

3. Ditto!

Never touch the stuff.

[Kolesar]

4. Alcohol is the sure thing for causing depression ... eom

[still_one]

5. How about this, people who drink diet soda do so because they may be overweight, and perhaps being

Overweight or the fear of becoming overweight leads to depression

[FarCenter]

7. Depression Linked With Accumulation Of Visceral Fat

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090428124358.htm

Yes, depression and drinking diet soda may both be linked with being fat.

[kysrsoze]

15. Exactly. They established correlation, not causation.

Big difference.

[Tikki]

6. I have a tendency to drink diet soda during the Summer, I am never depressed during the Summer...

I get depressed in the Winter and Fall when it gets dark sooner. I usually drink non-diet beverages in the Winter.



Tikki

[dkf]

8. The Neuroscience of the Gut

I'm not surprised...

"People may advise you to listen to your gut instincts: now research suggests that your gut may have more impact on your thoughts than you ever realized. Scientists from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the Genome Institute of Singapore led by Sven Pettersson recently reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that normal gut flora, the bacteria that inhabit our intestines, have a significant impact on brain development and subsequent adult behavior."

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-neuroscience-of-gut

[enlightenment]

9. So, they asked a bunch of people

50 to 71 how much soda they consumed, then asked them 10 years later (when they were 60 to 81, after some rather awful years in-between) if they had been diagnosed with depression.

I suspect if they had asked them about their salad consumption or how many potatoes they ate in a week or any other set of variables they would have had to admit that the soda wasn't so much of a trigger as things that have nothing to do with what they consumed. But that doesn't make for exciting articles designed to get the various food factions stirred up.

This article is very poorly written, to boot - moving from "The study doesn't show that diet drinks cause depression and the researchers stress their findings don't provide an explanation" to "The risk of depression was especially high for people who drank diet soda" within four sentences.

Doesn't anyone care about accuracy anymore? Even just a teeny bit?

[Moostache]

11. Hear! Hear!!!

The utter lack of scholarship in the way studies are presented is disgusting!!!!

People wake up! You are being manipulated.....

Here's a "study" for everyone - scientists have found that breathing oxygen is related to cellular mutation and is also toxic. So, there you have it - "some say" that breathing is dangerous for your health....

Our collective social fear of death is nauseating. Any Tom, Dick or Harry with a pulse and some free time can produce "studies" like the one above. The rise of pseudo-science in my lifetime has been depressing to no end. Carl Sagan would be equally horrorified I beieve. We miss his ability to convey science to the masses without dumbing it down too far.

[dipsydoodle]

10. Were those who died meanwhile

happy or depressed ?

[samsingh]

12. kick

[whistler162]

13. Actually it has been proved that....

reading studies and believing them depresses you!

[2on2u]

14. They have no explanations but if they would read outside their comfort zone they

might find some.

http://www.amazon.com/Excitotoxins-The-Taste-That-Kills/dp/0929173252/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357772508&sr=8-1&keywords=excitotoxins+the+taste+that+kills+by+russell+l.+blaylock


Review
''Detailed and well-researched, yet is written in such a fashion the non-medical person will come away with a good understanding of the subject.'' -- Medical Sentinel

''Excitotoxins is a valuable contribution to the understanding of the brain, and the need to protect it from assaults that result in various health problems and diseases.'' --Townsend Letter for Doctors

''Upsetting, yet it is responsibly researched and well argued. It opens a fresh view on the hazardous relationship of food (in this case, the wrong food) and brain health.'' --Alternative Medicine's Reviews

''This is an electrifying and important book that should be available to every American consumer.'' -- Wilson Library Bulletin

''This text will be of most interest to those serious about protecting their health, as well as to medical professionals.'' -- Biosis

''Blaylock releases a well-researched bombshell.'' --Book News --This text refers to the MP3 CD edition.
About the Author
RUSSELL L. BLAYLOCK, MD, board certified neurosurgeon, recently retired as a clinical assistant professor of neurosurgery at the Medical University of Mississippi. He has practiced neurosurgery for the past twenty-four years and runs a successful private nutritional practice. --This text refers to the MP3 CD edition.

[KamaAina]

16. Correlation does not imply causality

it may well be that people who feel they must consume diet soda to conform to society's idealized body image are depressed over that.

[davidn3600]

17. People that drink/eat diet anything are likely depressed about their appearance in the 1st place