Soda Causes Depression!!!

[Gamemaster77]

Sweet Sodas and Soft Drinks May Raise Your Risk of Depression, Study Finds

Um really, that doesn't sound quite right.

A new study of more than 260,000 people has found a link between sweetened soft-drinks and depression

Exactly, a link. Has no one realized that correlation does not imply causation?

Our findings are preliminary, and the underlying biological mechanisms are not known," said Chen. The study found an association but could not conclusively determine whether sodas and other sweet soft drinks cause depression, even after taking into account factors like age, gender, education, smoking, body mass index (BMI) and other issues.

Apparently the researchers have taken that into account too. But...

Participants who drank more than four servings of soda per day were 30 percent more likely to develop depression than participants who did not drink soda at all.

Yahoo seems to have jumped the gun here and made their own conclusion. What if people who have depression are just 30% more likely to drink more than four servings of soda per day?

Ridiculous, isn't it?

 

[emzie]

Welcome to science reporting in media. This isn't an exceptionally bad example.

 

[Skwink]

On average I drink three cans (of diet) a day, and have for way too long to be healthy. I'm living a pretty happy life though.

 

[_random_]

I drink a ton of pop. Fat-n-Jolly 4 Lyfe

 

[azzaman333]

How much is a serving?

 

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

I believe this. It's stinking hot, I just got home and if I was out of beer and had to drink soft drink, I'd be 100% more likely to get depressed.

 

[Neomega]

Or it's fat people are depressed easier.
People who drink soda are more likely to be fat.

Therefore, drinking soda makes you depressed.

 

[WindFish]

I read that the research said that depression and diet drinks were linked and I thought

"well duh, diet drinks are more likely to be drunk by fat people who are depressed anyway".

 

[Borachio]

Should be simple enough to find out with a control group. What's the difficulty?

I personally get a bit depressed by the amount of soft drink cans that litter my front garden. Not much though.

I never touch the stuff myself. And I'm happy to the point of being worried about being locked up for it.

Sometimes I won't leave the house for fear of laughing in public.

 

[Crezth]

Of conclusives this way is give. Drink this way for spiritual health. This paradigm of over-conclusives think that we are depressed. It's hard to say for sure, but I thing consumption and greed. Of consumption think the impression and greed. It's hard to undermine our sure, but I this way is going to say for sure, but I that we are depressed. It's hard to undermine our sure, but I thinking course embracing to say for sure, but I thinking pop is going pop is gives that we are depression in that we ar

 

[cardgame]

By the purest of coincidences, I found a plausible source other than Yahoo.

Seems legit.

 

[WindFish]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20943509

The BBC says the study didn't look to see if there was a cause between the two, just that the two were "connected"

 

[Cutlass]

If I go several days without sugared colas, I will be notably more depressed. Happens every time I've tried it going back some 20 years.

 

[Borachio]

Of conclusives this way is give. Drink this way for spiritual health. This paradigm of over-conclusives think that we are depressed. It's hard to say for sure, but I thing consumption and greed. Of consumption think the impression and greed. It's hard to undermine our sure, but I this way is going to say for sure, but I that we are depressed. It's hard to undermine our sure, but I thinking course embracing to say for sure, but I thinking pop is going pop is gives that we are depression in that we ar

Yay! This makes sense. The scales have fallen from my eyes, at last! How could I have been so stupid? (Hint: very easily.)

Should I read that article then? Mind you, I don't tend to go near Yahoo at all. So perhaps I won't.

 

[LegionSteve]

Or it's fat people are depressed easier.
People who drink soda are more likely to be fat.

Therefore, drinking soda makes you depressed.

Could be. Or possibly:

People who hate their job are likely to take more frequent beverage breaks.
People who hate their job are more likely to suffer from depression.

Did they ask the people in the survey if they hate their job?

 

[BornInCantaloup]

Totally credible to me.
Fact that no study proves the causality does not mean there is no causality. It only means there is no proven causality. Besides, causes of depression are wide and varied: it is not the best-known affliction humans may suffer.

Soft drinks often include additives that are a danger to one's health, including the brain's.
Damaging one's brain may surely lead her/him into depression. Or... having a damaged brain may facilitate one's fall into depression.


Plenty of sources on this but, for reference, on aspartame (no-sugar sweetener; oft used in sodas, chewing-gums, etc.):
Aspartame dangers, on NaturoDoc:
http://www.naturodoc.com/library/nutrition/aspartame.htm

THE CASE FOR ASPARTAME DISEASE BEING GULF WAR ILLNESS, LOU GEHRIGS:
http://www.wnho.net/aspartameandgulfwar.htm
(Nutshell: "A substance added to foods and beverages that literally stimulates neurons to death, causing brain damage of varying degrees. Can be found in such ingredients as monosodium glutamate, aspartame (NutraSweet), cysteine, hydrolyzed protein, and aspartic acid.")


In the same way as line 2, fact that the World Health Organization has not regulated (banned) the addition of aspartame in food does not imply there is no effect, nor danger, in its consumption.
In fact, it is easy to find articles defending the safety of aspartame... and the million dollars that are earned manufacturing it, one ill-advised mind might say.

Trust who you choose to trust.

 

[NedimNapoleon]

If that were true I'd be constantly depressed. I use it as a caffeine surge to help me. I drink a bit more than the American average, you could say I like it.

 

[GenMarshall]

I don't drink soda yet I still have depression.

 

[Borachio]

Try vigorous exercise. Or chocolate. Or CBT. Or Eckhart Tolle.

 

[warpus]

Exactly, a link. Has no one realized that correlation does not imply causation?

That is a very commonly quoted phrase, and to an extent it is true, but a correlation warrants an investigation into a possible causation - as it makes one far more likely.

Correlation doesn't always mean causation, but in a lot of cases it does.

A found correlation is not a reason to say "it's a correlation, not a cause", it's a reason to check whether it's a cause or not, because chances are much higher now that it could be.