Are your kids asking to drink soda now that you’re in Canada? It’s not the best choice for your children. Not only does it have lots of sugar and often caffeine, it can even lead to aggressive behaviour, according to a new study. Researchers recently found that children who consumed soda tended to measure higher on scales that measure aggressive behaviour than kids who do not drink soda. The study published by The Journal of Pediatrics was cautious to blame soda entirely for aggressive behaviour, but it did make a connection.
Researchers used an existing study of mothers and their 2,929 children from 20 large U.S. cities. The mothers and children were first recruited between 1998 and 2000 to be periodically interviewed and evaluated.
According to the study, mothers completed a checklist on children’s behaviors over the previous two months to measure withdrawal, attention and aggression. The mothers were also asked how many servings of soda their children drank per day and about other habits such as TV watching. Overall, 43 per cent of the kids drank at least one soda per day and four per cent drank four or more servings. Aggressive behaviour was measured on a scale between 0 and 100 — with higher scores indicating more aggression.
Kids who reportedly drank no soda scored 56 on the aggression scale, on average. That compared to 57 among kids who drank one serving per day, 58 among those who drank two servings, 59 among those who drank three servings and 62 for four soda servings or more per day. Researchers found that drinking two or four or more servings of soda per day was tied to higher aggression scores. Overall, kids who drank four or more servings of soda per day were twice as likely to destroy other people’s belongings, get into fights and physically attack people, compared to children who didn’t drink soda, according to the study. Stick to healthy beverages for your child such as water to stay hydrated. Water is all natural with no potential side effects on behaviour.
Dr. George I. Traitses of Infinite Health practises traditional chiropractic, advanced nutrition and anti-aging therapy and has been serving the Toronto and Markham communities since 1981. You can reach him at 416-499-5656 or www.infinite-health.com.