Cans of fizzy drinks have long been blamed for weight gain and tooth decay—and now scientists have explored if they could be affecting your mental health, too.
A team of German researchers explored the connection between fizzy drink consumption and major depressive disorder (MDD).
MDD—or depression—is described by the NHS as ‘a low mood that can last a long time or keep returning’.
Mental health charity MIND estimate that four in 10 people in the UK are diagnosed with depression, and it is estimated that 21 million Americans live with the condition.
The German study, titled Soft Drink Consumption and Depression Mediated by Gut Microbiome Alterations, was published in medical journal JAMA.
The researchers were looking for evidence that changes in the gut microbiome, which is an umbrella term for the huge array of microorganisms—bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other microbes—that live in the digestive tract.
They are mostly found in the large intestine where they help aid digestion and the absorption of vitamins and minerals.
The gut microbiome is also involved in regulating the body’s immune system.
A team of German researchers explored the connection between fizzy drink consumption and major depressive disorder
The researchers were especially interested to see if MDD could be triggered or made worse by two of these microorganisms in particular, eggerthella and hungatella.
Eggerthella has been linked to inflammatory bowel disease and arthritis, and high levels of hungatella have been cited as a potential cause for bowel cancer.
The bacteria have been linked to MDD, after previous studies found high levels of both were found in subjects with depression.
To formalise the link, the researchers tested stool samples from 405 patients aged between 18-65 with a depression diagnosis to measure the levels of the bacteria.
The group was 68 per cent female, and the researchers tested people who were both medicated and unmedicated to ‘ensure that soft drink consumption was not primarily influenced by antidepressants’.
These were then compared with a control group of 527 people who do not have MDD.
All the subjects were asked to keep a diary of how many fizzy drinks they had a day, as well as note their depression levels using the BDI-I, an industry-recognised measurement scale.
The consumption of carbonated soft drinks was assessed using a validated German 101-item semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ2), developed as part of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition.
Drinking fizzy drinks was linked to increase levels of a particular gut bacteria
Participants were asked to report their usual intake frequency of a single portion, as depicted visually in the questionnaire, over the preceding year.
The response categories ranged from ‘never’ to ‘several times per day’.
In regards to lemonade and Coke, the frequency of consuming a 200ml—roughly the size of a mini can—was assessed using a scale ranging from ‘never’ to ’11 times per day.’
The researchers found that higher soft drink consumption was associated with higher symptom severity in female participants—and higher levels of eggerthella abundance. They did not see the same pattern in the male participants.
They concluded that ‘soft drink consumption may contribute to MDD through gut microbiota alterations, notably involving eggerthella’.
Lead author Sharmili Edwin Thanarajah wrote that sex has an impact on the body’s gut microbiome, and this is likely why women are more affected by drinking soft drinks—even though their data revealed that men drink more of them.
Furthermore, they described soft drinks as a ‘widely distributed but fully avoidable risk factor’, adding that doctors should advise patients to reduce their soft drink intake as part of eating a healthy and balanced diet.
Earlier this month, Brazilian researchers found that guzzling just one diet fizzy drink everyday could rapidly raise the risk of brain decline.
Commonly-used sweeteners including aspartame, found in drinks like Diet Coke, Sprite and products like Extra chewing gum as sugar alternatives, have long been linked to certain cancers and heart issues.
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