Children who consume one or more sodas a day are more likely to exhibit negative behavioral attitudes, like inattentiveness and aggression, according to a new study.
For their study, researchers detailed the beverage consumption habits of nearly 3,000 5-year-olds. Mothers were than asked to fill out a Child Behavioral Checklist, which allowed researchers to assign scores to certain behavioral characteristics. After looking at the data, researchers came to two main conclusions:
- Children who drank 1 to 4 servings of soda a day were significantly more aggressive than children who drank no soda.
- Children who consumed 2 or more servings were observed as being “withdrawn,” and kids who drank 4 or more servings showed high attention difficulty scores.
Lead author Shakira Suglia, ScD, said the findings show that it is important for parents to regulate the amount of soda their child consumes.
“Our advice is consistent with what is already out there: for the very young kids, any soda is not a healthy option,” said Suglia. “And even for adolescents, I think parents should really limit the amount of soda their kids are drinking.”
Aggression Problems
Compared to children who consumed no soda, kids who drank one soda a day scored 0.74 points higher on the mean aggressive behavior score. The aggression score continued to climb as children consumed more soda. When children consumed 2, 3, or 4 sodas a day, their mean aggression score was 1.8, 2.0, and 4.7, respectively.
“We were seeing a dose-response effect. So with every increase in soda consumption, the association and the scores basically increased,” said Suglia. “This held up even after we adjusted for candy or fruit juice consumption and for a variety of social factors, especially for aggression with the highest level of soda consumption,” she added.
An aggressive personality can make it harder for kids to make friends. Researchers found that children who consumed the most amount of soft drinks were more than twice as likely to destroy another child’s belongings, physically attack another person, or get into a fight.
Other Problems
In addition to an increased likelihood of aggression, children who consumed an excess amount of soda were more likely to be withdrawn and inattentive.
Researchers found that children who consumed 4 or more soft drink servings a day scored 1.75 points above the mean score for attentiveness issues, and 0.88 above the mean for withdrawal tendencies.
Suglia said the findings were not surprising, considering soda consumption has already been linked to adverse behavioral issues like depression, suicidal thoughts, and lack of focus.
“In this large sample of 5-year-old urban US children, we found strong and consistent relationships between soda consumption and a range of problem behaviors, consistent with the findings of previous studies in adolescents.”
Suglia added that she hoped to expand on the study to determine how certain types of sodas like diet or noncaffienated drinks affect a child’s behavioral tendencies.
“It would be interesting in the future to try to parse out whether the findings are specific to a certain ingredient that we should be focusing on, such as caffeine or sugar, or is it just overall diet or lack of something they should be consuming? More specific data could be helpful.”
Dr. Silverman comments
How many more studies need to be conducted before parents understand the negative effect that sugar consumption is having on their children?
Parents are the people making the conscious decision to purchase soda at the grocery store. Don’t blame the child who goes into the refrigerator and grabs a soda; blame the person who put the soda in the fridge in the first place.
Take steps to promote water consumption in your house. Keep a pitcher of cold water in your fridge, and lead by example. If you’re drinking water, it will be easier to get your child to follow suit.
Related source: Medscape