The Australian Beverages Council, representing the Australian non-alcoholic beverage industry, has criticised the recent U.S. study attempting to link increased soda consumption with violence.

The study, carried out by the Harvard School of Health, reported high-school students who consumed more than five cans of non-diet, fizzy soft drinks every week were 9 to 15 per cent more likely to engage in an aggressive act compared with those who drank less.

Australian Beverages Council CEO Geoff Parker questioned the findings.

“The authors of this study have failed to factor out other important considerations and did not prove cause and effect. The fact remains that there is no scientific evidence to support that young adults who consume sugar-sweetened beverages are more likely to engage in violence,” he said.

“The conclusions of the authors, who surveyed less than 1,900 Boston public high school students, are not representative of the broader U.S. teen population. Unfortunately this study may result in false misperceptions about sugar-sweetened beverage consumption with no scientific evidence."

Parker added that the authors themselves note that they do not know the reason for the association between soft drinks and the perpetration of violence.

“The analysis has considerable limitations including that it was self-reported, there was “limited information” about the type of soft drinks consumed by respondents and no other information about the respondents’ overall diet.

In addition, there were potential factors for which the authors did not control, all of which were acknowledged in the analysis, Parker said.