Which drinks are linked to depression and anxiety?
Sugary drinks, sodas, energy drinks, and bubble tea were linked to more depression, while coffee was linked to a little less. Across 59 studies and 2,050,716 people, those who drank more non-alcoholic beverages overall had about 18% higher odds of depression and about 31% higher odds of anxiety.
The researchers pooled studies from 22 countries, published through November 2024, and looked at depression, anxiety, and stress. Lumping every drink together hides the most useful part of the result. Which drinks are linked to depression depends on what is in the cup, and coffee went the opposite way from most of the others.
An odds ratio compares how often depression shows up in people who drink more with how often it shows up in people who drink less. An odds ratio of 1.18 means about 18% higher odds. Odds are close to risk but not the same thing. Here, they mostly describe who had depression at the same time they reported their drinking habits, not who developed it later.
What the data show for each drink
Overall, the higher odds of depression in people who drank more were very likely somewhere between 11% and 26% (odds ratio 1.18). For anxiety, pooled from 19 studies, the odds were about 31% higher, very likely between 12% and 55% (odds ratio 1.31).
Broken down by drink, soft drinks went with about 39% higher odds of depression (odds ratio 1.39), very likely between 25% and 53%. Sugar-sweetened beverages as a group went with about 29% higher odds (odds ratio 1.29). Energy drinks and artificially sweetened drinks each went with about 30% higher odds (odds ratio 1.30), so diet drinks did not escape the pattern. Carbonated drinks showed about 81% higher odds (odds ratio 1.81). Bubble tea, the sweet tea drink with chewy tapioca pearls, showed about 2.6 times the odds (odds ratio 2.62). Those last two figures are the least precise. The true value for bubble tea could sit anywhere from 14% higher to about six times higher.
Coffee was the exception. People who drank more coffee had about 13% lower odds of depression (odds ratio 0.87). That drop was very likely between 1% and 24%, so its smallest likely value sits close to no difference at all. For anxiety, bubble tea and carbonated drinks were the drinks linked to higher odds.
Stress was less clear. Across 11 studies, the pooled link was about 15% higher odds (odds ratio 1.15), but the range ran from 2% lower to 35% higher, so the study could not rule out no link at all. When the team removed one study that disagreed sharply with the rest, the link reached statistical significance at about 21% higher odds (odds ratio 1.21).
Dr. Kumar’s Take
The headline finding, that non-alcoholic drinks are linked to depression, puts a cup of black coffee in the same bucket as an energy drink. The drink-by-drink results carry the real information.
When the researchers looked only at cohort studies, which follow people forward in time, the link with depression shrank to about 9% higher odds (odds ratio 1.09) and was no longer statistically significant. The overall result was carried mainly by cross-sectional studies, which take a single snapshot of drinking and mood at the same moment. A snapshot cannot tell you which came first. Someone who is depressed may sleep poorly, feel drained, and reach for soda or an energy drink for a lift. That would produce the same pattern without the drink causing anything.
The coffee result fits earlier research, but a 13% drop whose smallest likely value is close to zero is modest. It is not a reason to start drinking coffee for your mood. It is reassuring for the many people who already drink it. Cutting back on soda and energy drinks costs little, and this review gives one more reason to try.
How strong is the evidence?
Big numbers can make a result feel more certain than it is. Two million people is a huge pool, but most of the included studies were cross-sectional. The authors write that this “limits the certainty of the causal inference.” In plain terms, this review shows which drinks travel with depression, not which drinks cause it.
The studies also disagreed a lot with one another. A measure of that disagreement, called I-squared, was 93.7% for depression, near the top of a scale where 0% means the studies agree completely. The studies were done in different countries and age groups, and they measured drinks and mood in different ways. For anxiety, higher-quality studies tended to find weaker links, a sign that some of the effect may come from weaker methods.
On the reassuring side, the depression and anxiety results held up when the team removed studies one at a time, and a standard check found no clear sign that unpublished studies were skewing them. The authors say more studies are needed “before specific dietary recommendations can be made.”
Where the links were strongest
In studies of children and teens only, drinking more went with about 39% higher odds of depression (odds ratio 1.39) and about 72% higher odds of anxiety (odds ratio 1.72). The authors note that adolescents had the highest estimates for depression, anxiety, and stress. They suggest the still-developing front part of the brain may make teens more sensitive to what is in these drinks, an idea this review did not test.
The link also looked stronger for depressive symptoms measured on questionnaires (about 23% higher odds, odds ratio 1.23) than for depression diagnosed by a clinician (about 12% higher odds, odds ratio 1.12). The authors read this as a sign that these drinks may have more to do with day-to-day mood than with the start of a full depressive disorder. Both men and women showed the link with depression.
Practical Takeaways
- If you drink soda, energy drinks, or bubble tea most days, cutting back is a low-cost change, and this review adds mood to the list of reasons to try.
- If you already enjoy coffee, this review gives you no reason to give it up, since coffee was linked to lower odds of depression.
- Do not count on diet soda as the better choice for mood, because artificially sweetened drinks showed about the same link to depression as sugary ones.
- Keep an eye on soda and energy drink habits in teenagers, since the links were strongest in studies of young people, and persistent low mood in a teen deserves a conversation with a doctor.
Related Studies and Research
- Sugary drinks linked to 34% higher anxiety risk in teens
- Coffee health benefits: an umbrella review of 67 meta-analyses
- Are artificial sweeteners bad for your blood sugar and heart?
- How much caffeine Americans get from coffee, tea, and energy drinks
- Diet changes for depression: what the evidence supports
FAQs
Is coffee good for depression?
Coffee was linked to about 13% lower odds of depression in this review. The authors note that this matches earlier research, including one analysis in which moderate coffee intake went with the lowest levels of depression and anxiety. They suggest compounds in coffee such as chlorogenic acid, which they describe as having anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, may explain part of it. Still, the finding comes from observational studies, and coffee drinkers may differ from non-drinkers in other ways. Coffee is not a treatment for depression, and persistent low mood calls for a proper evaluation, not a change in drink order.
Do energy drinks cause depression or anxiety?
This review cannot show that. Energy drinks were linked to about 30% higher odds of depression, but most of the evidence came from studies that measured drinking and mood at the same moment. That design cannot tell whether the drinks came first or the low mood did. People who are exhausted or struggling may lean on energy drinks to get through the day, which would create the same link. What the review does show is that heavy energy drink use and depression often show up together, which makes the habit worth noticing in yourself or in a teenager.
Why did the study leave out tea?
The researchers excluded studies focused on tea and depression. In their view, genetic studies using a method called Mendelian randomization had already established that link, so they did not pool it again. That means this review says nothing about plain green or black tea. Bubble tea was included, and it was one of the drinks most strongly linked to both depression and anxiety. Plain tea and a sweetened bubble tea are very different drinks, so a result for one says little about the other.
Bottom Line
In 59 studies covering more than 2 million people, sweetened drinks, fizzy drinks, energy drinks, and bubble tea went with higher odds of depression, and coffee went with about 13% lower odds. Overall, drinking more non-alcoholic beverages went with about 18% higher odds of depression and 31% higher odds of anxiety, while the link with stress was uncertain. Most of the studies were one-time snapshots, and the studies that followed people over time did not find a statistically significant link with depression. So this review shows which drinks travel with depression, not proof that they cause it. Cutting back on soda and energy drinks is still an easy, low-risk change.
