Fizzy drinks go straight to your head

Norwegian researchers have called for drinks machines to be removed from schools and similar places after a study of thousands of teenagers found a direct link between sugary soft drinks and mental health problems such as hyperactivity and distress.

The researchers asked more than 5,000 Norwegian 15 and 16 year-olds how many fizzy soft drinks with sugar they had a day, and then questions from a standard questionnaire used to assess mental health.

The teens who reported skipping breakfast and lunch were among the heaviest soft drink consumers, Dr. Lars Lien and colleagues at the University of Oslo found. 'There was a strong association between soft drink consumption and mental health problems among Oslo 10th graders.' This association remained even after allowing for other factors.

Most of the students said they drank anywhere between one and six servings of soft drinks per week.

Interestingly those who drank no soft drinks at all werre not the happiest. In fact, those who drank no soft drinks at all were more likely than moderate drinkers to have mental health symptoms. But those who drank the most -- more than six servings a week - had the highest scores.

For hyperactivity, there was a direct linear relationship -- the more sodas a teen drank, the most symptoms of hyperactivity he or she had.

The worst problems were seen in boys and girls who drank four or more soft drinks a day. (10% of boys and 2% of girls drank this much.) Norway's health experts recommend that only 10% of total calories should come from sugar but at least a quarter of the boys were getting this much from soft drinks alone.

The researchers said it was also possible that other substances in the soft drinks, such as caffeine, were to blame for the symptoms, and they did not check other possible sources of refined sugar in the children's diets.

'One simple and effective measure to reduce soft drink consumption in this age group would be to remove soft drink machines from schools and other public places where adolescents gather,' said Dr. Lien.