Dive Summary:
- The American Beverage Association has issues a statement in response to a recent report from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) linking soda and depression.
- The NIH research, scheduled to be presented at which at the American Academy of Neurology's annual meeting in March, found that people who drink four cans or more of soda every day are around 30% more likely to be diagnosed with depression than people who do not drink soda at all, with a greater risk for those who who drink diet rather than regular soda.
- The ABA statement calls the research "an abstract" and emphasizes that "it has not been peer-reviewed," going on to call the promotion of the findings "irresponsible."
From the article:
“We may be in a new year, but there is nothing new about the ways our critics try to attack our industry. This research is nothing more than an abstract – it has not been peer-reviewed, published or even, at the very least, presented at a scientific meeting. Furthermore, neither this abstract nor the body of scientific evidence supports that drinking soda or other sweetened beverages causes depression. Thus, promoting any alleged findings without supporting evidence is not only premature, but irresponsible.”