The following is excerpted from an online article posted by StudyFinds
A soda with lunch hardly registers as a health decision. But as little as one cup of soda a week was linked to smaller overall brain surface area in kids, according to a new study of 9,632 American children ages 9 to 11. Researchers at King’s College London found that kids who consumed more caffeine, mostly from soda, had less surface area across the brain’s outer layer, a pattern that showed up in 22 separate brain regions.
Soda stood out. Alone, it was tied to smaller surface area in 19 regions, and the authors wrote that the findings were “largely driven by soft drink intake.” Kids averaged about 1.2 cups of soda a week versus 0.2 cups of coffee, making soda their main caffeine source. Sugar may play a part too, since the researchers say it could influence brain development, and earlier research links heavy soda drinking to other less healthy habits. Caffeine, sugar, and lifestyle could not be pulled apart.
Caffeine came from kids’ own reports, sleep from parents, and brain scans were taken once, so the study cannot show that caffeine caused any brain difference. A smaller surface area does not by itself mean damage, and the study did not test whether the differences affect how kids think or learn.
Few parents think twice about a weekly soda, and nothing here proves they should. The authors add that checking a young person’s caffeine use may be relevant when sleep problems or early mental health symptoms show up. And a link showing up at such low intake across nearly 10,000 children makes their call for clear, evidence-based caffeine guidelines for adolescents hard to wave off.
Source: StudyFinds
https://studyfinds.com/kids-one-soda-weekly-smaller-brain/