Coffee is getting a lot of good press lately – and I write this sipping my morning latte. The latest study of benefits for my morning brew suggests that is a far better choice for adults at risk of depression than drinking sweetened beverages, especially diet drinks.
Researchers looked at more than 263,000 people between the ages of 50 and 71 and found that those who drank more than four cans of fruit punch a day were 38 percent more likely to be diagnosed with depression than those who did not drink sweetened drinks.
The results were much more positive for coffee drinks. The researchers said that people who drank four cups of coffee a day were about 10 percent less likely to develop depression than those who drank no coffee.
Perhaps the most surprising finding was that diet soda, diet fruit punch, and even diet iced tea appeared to be a greater risk than regular soda, fruit punch or iced tea.
These findings, to be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's annual meeting in March, suggest that drinking unsweetened coffee could actually be the best choice if you want to avoid depression. But the researchers cautioned that people who are taking depression medication should continue taking it.