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Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and fast foods deteriorates adolescents’ mental health
There is a considerable correlation between teenagers’ poor mental health and their use of fast food and sugar-sweetened drinks (SSBs). Additionally, these two dietary habits may create clustered patterns of consumption that are significantly associated with mental health issues in high school students. Because SSBs and fast food have synergistic effects, consuming them together may be more harmful to mental health than consuming them separately. The purpose of this study by Ra (2022) was to investigate how fast food intake and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) interact to affect mental health outcomes in Korean high school students, including stress, depression symptoms, and suicide ideation. This study used the 17th Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey from 2021 to examine secondary data from 24,006 pupils. In Korean adolescents, consuming above-moderate levels of both SSBs and fast foods was linked to higher levels of stress, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation compared to the independent consumption of either. In addition, there were dose-dependent detrimental effects on stress, depression symptoms, and suicidal thoughts when a high SSB intake was paired with different degrees of fast-food consumption. These results imply that in order to assist in improving the mental health of adolescents, healthcare practitioners in communities and schools might create interventions, such as school-based programs and regulations that restrict the use of SSBs and fast meals. [NPID: Adolescent, sugar-sweetened beverages, fast foods, suicidal ideation, psychological stress, depression]
Year: 2022
