SynthesisFrontiers in nutrition2024
Association of sugar consumption with risk of depression and anxiety: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Frontiers in nutrition, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The oral und systemic health risks of sugar consumption: an umbrella review.Clinical oral investigations · 2026Pooled it
- Diet, the Gut Microbiome, and Mental Health: Mechanistic Perspectives.Molecular nutrition & food research · 2026Review
- Sociodemographic Characteristics and Dietary Habits Associated with Generalized Anxiety Disorder Symptoms in Adults Living in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: A Large Cross-Sectional Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Article
- Sugar restriction during the first 1000 days after conception and its association with decreased risk of anxiety and depression.General psychiatry · 2026Article
- Early-life exposure to sugar rationing and long-term risk of depression and anxiety: a population-based natural experiment.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Associations Between Aspects of Diet and Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors in Children Aged 4 Years.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Article
- Associations of nutritional habits, lifestyle, and demographic factors with mental health outcomes among university students in Lebanon: a cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Article
- Consumption of High-Energy Food and Sugar Shows a Strong Positive Association with Low Mood in Control Subjects and Depressed Patients.Nutrients · 2025Article
- The Association between Ultra-Processed Foods and Depression, Anxiety and Sleep in Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study in Iran.Food science & nutrition · 2025Article
- The Validation of the Persian Version of Sugar Addiction Questionnaire: Factor Structure, Item Analysis and Model Fit.Iranian journal of psychiatry · 2025Article
- The association of dietary components with depression and anxiety symptoms: findings from a cross-sectional survey.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Sugar consumption has increased dramatically around the world, and at the same time, the prevalence of mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety continues to increase. While previous research has explored the impact of various dietary factors on mental health, the specific impact of dietary sugar consumption on the risk of depression and anxiety disorders remains elusive. This study aimed to comprehensively assess this relationship through a systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Network (CNKI), and WangFang were systematically searched for studies of the association between total dietary sugar intake and risk of depression and/or anxiety. The articles that meet the criteria are screened and included in the systematic review, and the data are extracted after assessing their quality. Stata 18.0 software was used for the meta-analysis. Results: Forty studies with 1,212,107 participants were included in the analysis. Results showed that sugar intake increased the risk of depression by 21% (OR = 1.21, 95% CI: 1.14, 1.27), while the overall association between sugar intake and anxiety risk was not statistically significant (OR = 1.11, 95% CI: 0.93, 1.28). Despite high heterogeneity ( Conclusion: Total dietary sugar consumption was significantly associated with increased risk of depression in the general population, whereas the association with risk of anxiety was not significant. Further high-quality studies are needed to verify these associations and ensure their reliability. This study highlights the impact of dietary sugar intake on mental health, identifies potentially high-risk groups through subgroup analysis, and provides new insights into the prevention of depression and anxiety. Systematic review registration: CRD42024540548.
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