4. Discussion
anxiety, subsyndromal depression, depressive, depression, non-alcoholic beverages, depressive disorders
REGRESSION, DISORDER
This study examined the association between the consumption of carbonated/soft drinks, coffee, and tea and depressive and anxiety symptom severity using data from the European depression prevention trial MooDFOOD. The results show that carbonated/soft drinks were associated with a higher level of anxiety. Specifically, people who drink more than one unit (200 mL) per day of carbonated/soft drinks with sugar have greater symptoms of anxiety compared to those who drink less than one unit per week.These findings are in line with findings from adolescents [Also, our results show a trend towards significance in the association between both daily consumption of carbonated/soft drinks with sugar and with NNSs and a higher level of depression. In fact, marginal effects analysis shows an association between daily consumption of these beverages and mild depression.Previous studies have found a significant relation between carbonated beverages and depression, although most of them were focused on adolescents and Asian populations [In contrast to previous studies, coffee consumption was not associated with depression and anxiety symptoms severity in our sample. The findings of earlier research found that those who consumed coffee weekly or more had significant lower odds of symptoms of depression compared with those who did not consume coffee [In relation to anxiety, previous research found contradictory results. Nouri-Majd et al. (2022) [No significant associations between tea consumption and depression and anxiety symptom severity were found. This finding is similar to that of a large cross-sectional and prospective study [Previous results about the relationship between tea consumption and anxiety are divergent and scarce. Similar to our results, Sarris et al., 2019 [Our research presents several limitations. First, the sample size is smaller compared to prior studies [Finally, the dose of caffeine and L-theanine consumption were not assessed. Despite these limitations, our study has several strengths. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study using longitudinal data examining the association between carbonated/soft drinks, coffee, and tea and depressive and anxiety symptom severity in subjects with subsyndromal depression. In addition, multilevel mixed-effects ordered logistic regression models were proposed, making optimal use of the longitudinal data and the models were adjusted for potential confounding factors. Finally, the subjects were from four different European countries, which may improve the generalizability to other countries.Our findings provide valuable information about the intake patterns of non-alcoholic beverages and their relationship with anxiety and depressive disorders in European adult populations, specifically, the association between carbonated/soft drinks with sugar and the anxiety severity. This information should be taken into consideration when providing healthy lifestyle recommendations and guidelines to prevent and/or manage this disorder in specific populations.