Kids Drinking More than 4 Servings of Soda a Day More Aggressive: Study

Young children who drink soda regularly are at a greater risk of developing behavioral disorders such as aggression, attention problems and conditions of withdrawal than those who don't take these beverages daily, according to a new study.

The study was conducted by researchers at Columbia University, University of Vermont, and Harvard School of Public Health. It was based on data of nearly 3,000 5-year-old children.

All these children were part of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, which is a prospective birth cohort that follows mother-child pairs from 20 cities in the U.S. Data showed that nearly half of all children, about 43 percent, drank at least one serving of carbonated sugary drinks a day, while about 4 percent consumed over four servings per day.

Researchers found that children who drank soda every day had higher chance of displaying aggression, withdrawal and attention problems than others. The association between soda and behavioral problems remained even after the researchers accounted for other factors such as socio-economic status, maternal depression and violence at home.

The study showed that children with higher level of soda consumption were twice more likely to get into fights and break things when compared with other children.

"We found that the child's aggressive behavior score increased with every increase in soft drinks servings per day," said Shakira Suglia, Columbia University's Mailman School assistant professor of Epidemiology and one of the study authors, according to a new study.

Recently, a large study from Harvard showed that every year about 180,000 people die from obesity linked to drinking large amounts of sugary drinks. Similar studies on teens and young adults have shown how sweetened drinks can raise health complications. Another study had previously found an association between sugary drinks and hyperactive behavior in children and teens.

The present study only shows a co-relation between soda-consumption and behavioral problems. It does not prove a cause and effect relationship.

However, limiting children's soda intake could reduce behavioral problems, researchers said.

The study is published in The Journal of Pediatrics.