STAR/TRIBUNE
High school students who drink a lot of soda pop are also more likely to be violent, according to a study of surveys completed in 2008 by more than 1,800 Boston high school students. The study, released late Monday in the British medical journal Injury Prevention, does not suggest a cause and effect -- only an association between soda consumption and violence.
It is possible – even likely, researchers say – that other social or biological factors make teens who are prone to violence also prone to drinking a lot of soda. Maybe poor parenting or low-blood sugar are the catalysts that make students pursue both bad habits.
Even without proving cause and effect, the study makes a meaningful contribution because there has been little focus on this connection between soda consumption and violence before. The surveys asked students how much soda they had consumed in the prior week, and whether they had carried a weapon or been violent to classmates, boy/girlfriends or relatives in the past year. Perhaps soda consumption is simply a red flag that schools and parents can monitor for a higher likelihood of violent behavior. “If we want to understand youth violence and we want to reduce it, then we want to look at everything that can impact it,” said Sara Solnick, the chairwoman of the University of Vermont’s economic department who co-authored the Boston student study. “This was something that was not on the radar. Maybe we need to start paying attention.”
Students who drank a lot of soda also drank more alcohol and smoked. Those are behaviors that are strongly correlated with youth violence. However, even when the latest study factored out tobacco and alcohol use, there still was a strong relationship between heavy soda consumption and a higher rate of self-reported violence.
Researchers at the University of Minnesota (not involved with the study) urged great caution in interpreting the results, and certainly discouraged anyone from believing soda causes aggression at this point. The U's Simone French noted it can't simply be the sugar in soda that agitates teens and makes them more violent. "Using this logic, Halloween, a socially supported sugar-overdose, should cause an increase in violent behaviors among adolescents across the country," she said.
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I think its funny that they think that soda causes violence. A lot of people are fine after they drink pop. I think they should look more at alcohol and smoking.
ReplyDeleteMacKenzie N 1
i disagree that soda causes violence. i think they should look at other causes like bullying and home environments. pop maybe harmful to your body but it has no control over what people do.
ReplyDeleteCheyennne J3
i dont agre with that. all people are difrent.
ReplyDeletek eggum 7
I think that soda causing violence is false. Soda can make a person sleepy or hyper but it doesn't make you violent. People who act violent is people who can't control their temper.
ReplyDeleteJimmy P7
i think that soda is not causing violence in people. people use soda to help them last the day.
ReplyDeleteI don't think they should even be doing this study.I think they are trying to get rid of pop because it is unhealthy.
tim m 7
I agree with Tim, it doesn't cause any violence, people use it to get energy to make it through out the day. People think it is un-heathly, so they are just making excuses to not have soda. & I also agree with Jimmy, people you are violent can't control them selves, not everyone should be punished
ReplyDeleteCheyenne Hjelle P.7
I have to agree with this article. Last year my leadership class did a big project on this topic. I found out that there was a lot of evidence to prove that this was true. I also found out that video games, t.v. and movies also had factors in creating violence. I thought this was pretty interesting because it had never occurred tome that this was true.
ReplyDeleteChelsey Daly P.3
Some people that drink pop are probably violent, but theres alot of people who drink pop and aren't violent. So I don't think that they can conclude that pop causes violence. I also agree with what Tim said and that they are just trying to get us to stop drinking pop because it is unhealthy.
ReplyDeleteMacKenzie Herr P.7
People who drink pop might be be more energetic.It might cause the person to be more sensitive,but not that violence. So i have to disagree with this
ReplyDeleteBrendon S. P1
I don't agree with this article. Pop is unhealthy but if someone is violent it has nothing to do with what they are eating or drinking. People don't deserve to have pop taken away from them if they enjoy it. Yes, it maybe does increase your chances of gaining weight or getting another cavity but to some people it is a necessity in their everyday life. If someone is violent it is a mental problem.
ReplyDeleteElle O. P7
I think pop is unhealthy, yes, and i also think that amount of sugar in our body is not making any good, but i don't think that is causing violence because if the sugar was the problem, as the article says halloween will increase the violence and it doesn't.what i think is that some chemicals in the pop may change behavior but don't blame a drink for making people violent, and I don't think that's the case, but at the same time we need to realize that drinking the amounts of soda we usually do is obviously going to bring some effects in our body because that drink has nothing healthy in it.
ReplyDeleteLucy M. p7
Pop is causing violence to teens? It doesn't makek any sense. What about adults who always drink soda? Are they violent too? If there's a chemical that causes violence in soda, government should regulate selling pops, like they do on cigarette and drinks.
ReplyDeleteSeoHyun P. 1
This got to be more of an opinion on the researchers part because, well how can you directly link the drinking of pop to drinking alcohol and smoking I drink a couple pops a day and I never have smoked or drank. sure there are some kids that drink a lot of pop and do the drugs and alcohol but I bet the majority of kids don't. So what I wondering is were they didi the research that they came to this conclusion because it sure wasn't from around here.
ReplyDeleteThis has got to be more of an opinion on the researchers part because, well how can you directly link the drinking of pop to alcohol and smoking, I drink a couple pops a day and i have never smoked or drank. sure there are some kids that drink a lot of pop and do the drugs and smoke but i bet the majority of kids that drink pop don't. So what i am wondering is were they did the research that they came up with the conclusion because it sure couldn't of been around here.
ReplyDeleteJoel U
I think it's possible that there might be some chemical ,or, rather, concoction that leads teens to more violence and smoking. That, plus the condition of the family they come from, video games, TV, and the traumatic experience a teen went through, can cause many psychotic problems. Tanoy S.P3
ReplyDeleteI think it is interesting that kids who are more violent are also linked with more soda consumption. I do not understand why a violent child would be more apt to drink pop, however if it is the case maybe less kids should drink it? Also, I believe that maybe these kids who behave violently just have parents that don't pay alot of attention to them, and this is why they are participating in the unhealthy decision of drinking pop. I think this article is unique and I am glad that people are taking interest into these issues regarding teens in society.
ReplyDeleteAnna C. 3
I do not agree with this article at all because I know alot of people who drink pop and are not at all violent. Maybe some people who do drink pop are violent but it might be from their home life or something else. I do not understand where these researchers are finding these facts about pop. Maybe if the researchers would tell us how they found this out maybe we would understand more about this article.
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ReplyDeleteLindsay F. hour 1
I would have to disaggree with this article. Soda is not the problem with violence, it's because either A) Kids can't control there temper or B) They have parents that don't care what they do and let them do whatever they want. The only thing soda really causes is bad teeth because of all the sugar.
ReplyDeleteKristin M. 3
Im going to be honest I don't think soda has any direct link to violence,but Many things could link the two. Home enviroments and life styles that people live could easily have an effect on how much soda someone consumes, but in some instances this theory might seem true.
ReplyDeleteKatelyn V.3
I dont think soda causes violence. it's like a supplement for the consumers of alcohol. obviously the kids that consume alcohol is going to be violent. When they can't have alcohol they drink soda. In the end soda is not violent just bad health
ReplyDeleteThanousay k. 7
I have to say that I do not think that soda is the link t violence. It is the kids that go home to not a very good home life. The kids that do what ever they want and do not listen to there parents. The kids who go home and do stuff that they are not supoose too. I know alot of people that drink quite a bit of pop and they are defeninitly not violent! I think that they should maybe start looking into kid's home lives and less into pop that is making kids violent!
ReplyDeleteCarly L. 3
I don't think soda and violence are connected. I agree with Carly when she said alot of kids at our school drink pop, but they are not violent. Soda may make people hyper, but I wouldn't say violent. In my opinion, people should take more time reserching other more important things instead of performing studies like this.
ReplyDeleteShannel D. 3
I don't think soda causes any violence. Soda makes some people hyper but i don't think it would make them violent. I agree with Shannel that they should do more reserch of this. I think that it is the people in their lives that would make them be violent not the soda.
ReplyDeleteAlyssa C. 3
I agree with Tim. I don't think pop causes the problems either. Though i can imagine, that it could be because of the parents or anything which connects the soda to the teenies. For example, that you buy soda, because it's cheaper than water and the parents buy only cheap food which isn't healthy and wakes some kind of hormones that make you aggressive. But i can't really(!) imagine that. If it would be about me, i don't think soda is linked directly to agression on Teenagers.
ReplyDeleteI don't think this article is saying that soda pop makes teens violent, just that there is a link between the two. It's like teens who get x hours of sleep get higher test scores. Some teens don't get x hours and do well, and others don't do well but get x hours of sleep. Even though the statement might not be true in all cases, they are connected. There are many other factors to take into consideration, like a bad home life for example. So I guess we just have to look at this as a warning and continue to see what comes from it.
ReplyDeleteAlex H.3
I do not believe it is the pop that is making teens violent. Yes it does have a lot of sugar and caffine, but i has nothing to do with violence. They say if teen are drinking pop that means they have bad parenting. That does not sound right to me. They also assume that people who drink pop also are involved with drinking alcohol and doing drugs. I think they should do some more research before they jump to conclusions. Not all people who drink pop do drugs or drink.
ReplyDeleteLinda R.1
i believe that pop doesn't cause violence. It is bad for your health, but it has nothing to do with violence. They need to research more on alcohol or something else. pop has nothing to do with violence.
ReplyDeleteChris c. 7
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