We know that sugary sodas aren't good for our bodies. Now it turns out that they may not be good for our minds, either. A new study of more than 260,000 people has found a link between sweetened soft-drinks and depression, and diet sodas may be making matters worse. Americans drink far more sodas than people in other countries-- as much as 170 liters per person per year. But the impact of this study isn't limited to the United States. "Sweetened drinks, coffee and tea are commonly consumed worldwide and have important physical consequences. And they may have important mental-health consequences as well," study author Dr Honglei Chen said in a statement. The study studied 263,925 people between the ages of 50 and 71. Researchers followed their consumption of drinks like soda, tea coffee, and other soft drinks from 1995 to 1996 and then. 10 years later, asked them if they had been diagnosed with depression since the year 2000. More than 11,3000 of them had. Participants who drank more than four servings of sodas per day were 30 percent more likely to develop depression than participants who did not drink sodas at all. People who stuck with fruit punch , had a 38 percent higher risk than people who didn't drink sweetened drinks. And all that extra sugar isn't the actual problem. Researchers say that the artificial sweetener _ may be to blame. The study found a link but could not surely determine whether sodas and other sweet soft drinks cause depression. Still, the results "are consistent with a small but growing body of evidence suggesting that artificially sweetened beverages may be linked to poor health outcomes." But there's a bright side for those who can't live without their daily sodas. Adults who drank coffee had a 10 percent lower risk of depression compared to people who didn't drink any coffee, according to the study. "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," said Chen. What do we know about the process of the study?
About twenty-six thousand people participated in it. The oldest participants were below 80 when the study was over. Most of the participants had depression when the study was over. The study lasted more than ten years from the beginning to the end.