Cans of fizzy soft drinks make teens violent

Teenagers who drink more than five cans of carbonated soft drinks every week are more likely to be violent.

Research of 1,878 US teenagers aged between 14 and 18 years of age, found that those drinking this amount were more likely to behave aggressively, be violent to friends and family and carry a weapon such as a gun or knife.

In the research published in Injury Prevention, 30 per cent of the teenagers fell into a high consumption category.

The researchers say: “There may be a direct cause-and-effect-relationship, perhaps due to the sugar or caffeine content of soft drinks, or there may be other factors, unaccounted for in our analyses, that cause both high soft drink consumption and aggression.”