Sugary and carbonated drinks linked to higher depression and anxiety risk

For stress, the main analysis was not statistically significant (OR = 1.15, 95% CI: 0.98–1.35), though a sensitivity analysis excluding one study became significant. When beverages were analyzed separately, coffee showed an inverse association with depression (OR = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.76–0.99), meaning coffee drinkers had lower odds of depression. In contrast, sugar-sweetened beverages, bubble tea, carbonated beverages, and energy drinks were all positively associated with depression, and bubble tea and carbonated beverages were positively associated with anxiety. The authors note that further prospective and interventional studies are needed before specific dietary recommendations can be made, and that the findings reflect associations rather than proven causation.

The inverse association between coffee and depression is striking—coffee drinkers showed 13% lower odds of depression compared to non-drinkers in the pooled estimates. This contrasts sharply with sugar-sweetened beverages and energy drinks, which showed consistent positive associations across multiple studies. Bubble tea emerged as particularly relevant for anxiety risk, suggesting that the combination of sugar, caffeine, and other ingredients may matter more than any single component. The stress findings were less consistent across studies (confidence interval crossed 1.0 in the main analysis), indicating heterogeneity in study populations or stress measurement. Subgroup analyses likely revealed differences by geography, age, and study design, though the authors do not break these out in the abstract. One limitation is that most included studies were observational, meaning reverse causation is possible—people with depression or anxiety may preferentially choose sugary beverages rather than the beverages causing mood symptoms.