Could Your Adolescent's Anxiety Be Linked to Soda Consumption?

Warnings around kids and teens drinking soda and other sugary beverages have been around for decades, highlighting risks about everything from obesity and tooth decay to Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Now a new study has found a link between sugary drinks and adolescent anxiety, a leading cause of mental distress in young people.

“With increasing concern about adolescent nutrition, most public health initiatives have emphasized the physical consequences of poor dietary habits, such as obesity and type-2 diabetes,” said study co-author and Bournemouth University lecturer in nutrition Chloe Casey in a press release. “However, the mental health implications of diet have been underexplored by comparison, particularly for drinks that are energy dense but low in nutrients.”

For the systematic review and meta-analysis, published in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, researchers used data from nine surveys, published between 2000 and 2025, to examine consumption of sugary drinks — soda, energy drinks, sweetened juices, flavored milks, and even sugared coffee and tea —and the mental health of young people.

The results consistently found a link between high levels of sugary drink consumption and anxiety — at 34% percent higher odds.

A similar study out of China from 2019 found that teens who drank more soft drinks had a higher incidence of depression and anxiety symptoms.

Beverage recommendations for kids and teens released last year from medical and nutrition experts at Healthy Eating Research (HER) urged young people to focus on pure hydration — with straight-up water — and stay completely away from drinks containing caffeine (consumed by one in four teens daily), sugar, or sugar substitutes.

The authors of the new study do note that while their findings find a link between sugary drinks and teen anxiety, they do not show cause. It’s possible, they write, that adolescents may drink more sugary drinks because they have anxiety, or that they may have anxiety from other factors.

Still, said Casey, “Whilst we may not be able to confirm at this stage what the direct cause is, this study has identified an unhealthy connection between consumption of sugary drinks and anxiety disorders in young people. And because anxiety disorders in adolescence have risen sharply in recent years, she added, “it is important to identify lifestyle habits which can be changed to reduce the risk of this trend continuing.”