Aggressive behavior is not only associated with drinking alcoholic beverages. In adolescents, a can of soda each day can change the behavior becomes more irritable and prone engage in various acts of violence.
A study in the journal Injury Prevention show aggressive behavior in adolescents is closely linked to the habit of drinking soda. Not yet confirmed a causal relationship, but these findings strengthen the notion that nutrition can affect behavior.
The study was conducted on 1878 adolescents aged 14-18 years from 22 public schools in the Boston area, the United States. The researchers observed the behavior of the respondents associated with violence, and then compare it with the habit of drinking soft drinks.
From the analysis, obtained two groups of respondents based on the habit of drinking soft drinks group that is high and low groups. High group drank soft drinks five cans or more per week, whereas the low group drank four cans or less per week.
In the low group, the researchers only found a trend of aggressive behavior and violence in 23 percent of respondents. This trend manifested one of them with experience carrying a weapon, either a knife or gun in recent weeks.
While in the high group, the tendency to commit acts of violence is much higher at 43 percent. This means, simply by drinking a can of soda each day it can change the behavior of adolescents tend to be more aggressive and prone to violence.
The results of this study are also consistent with several previous studies, which says that poor nutrition increases the likelihood of antisocial behavior in adolescents. Violence is one form of antisocial behavior, while soft drinks including poor nutrition source.