Diet Soda Drinkers Prone to Depression Diagnosis

While many people enjoy the taste of a diet soda now and again, new studies have shown that people that drink diet sodas or fruit drinks on a regular basis are more likely to be diagnosed with depression.

The study, which took place over more than a decade of time, looked at more than 263,900 U.S. adults who answered questions about the beverages that they drank.  Ten years later, these same people were questioned whether or not they had been diagnosed with depression.

Men and women who regularly drank four or more cans of any type of soda were 30 percent more likely to have been diagnosed with depression than those who did not drink soda at all.  Diet soda drinkers had a higher risk of depression : a 31 percent risk versus a 22 percent risk of regular soda drinkers.

If a diet soda drinkers, drank more than four cans of diet soda a day the percentages of depression skyrocketed to 51 percent.

In contrast, people who drank four or more cups of coffee a day were 10 percent less likely to be diagnosed with depression than non-coffee drinkers.

While a family history of depression and stressful life events are some of the biggest predictors of depression, the study focused primarily on frequent beverage consumption of sweetened drinks.

More research will continue to be done on diet and fruity drinks, but in the mean time anyone diagnosed with depression should always continue to follow their doctor's orders and prescriptions.