Scientists find another reason to not let adolescents eat fast food and drink carbonated soft drinks

Unhealthy food, including fast food and carbonated soft drinks, may have an extremely negative impact on not only physical, but also mental health of adolescents, based on a study conducted at the University of Queensland.

According to Medportal, researchers studied the Global School-based Student Health Survey data from 175,261 adolescents from 64 countries with low, average and high incomes.

Adolescents reported frequency of stress-related sleep disturbance and consumption of carbonated soft drinks and fast foods. Overall, 7.5% of adolescents reported sleep disturbance during the past 12 months. Adolescent males who had fast foods ≥4 days/week had 55% higher odds of reporting sleep disturbance than ≤1 day/week, while the odds were 50% higher in females.

The specialists remind that their findings suggest strong positive associations between carbonated soft drink and fast food intake with stress-related sleep disturbance. Prospective studies are needed to understand the directionality of the relationship.

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