The more social media you consume, the more sugar you consume

Tweeting about your sugar high? There might be a reason. A new Canadian study took a look at almost 9,000 middle- and high-school students and found that increased use of social media correlated with a decrease in nutrition. Those more likely to turn to Instagram were also more likely to grab an energy drink, and those who watch Vines in lieu of TV were more likely to scroll Facebook in lieu of breakfast.

Researchers discovered this by surveying the students and controlling for other possible factors. Students who reported using social networking sites (that’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Snapchat, Yik Yak, Kik Messenger, WhatsApp, etc.) for less than one hour had a 67% chance of consuming sugar-sweetened beverages, for two hours it was almost 1.5 times that, and for five or more hours a day the odds were almost 3.3 times greater. Yikes.

This doesn’t bode well for teens, nine out of ten whom regularly check social media on their mobile devices, and some of whom send up to 100 texts a day.

Despite this. We don’t really know…anything. “We really have no idea about the impact of all this on the health of children and teens because the studies haven’t been done,” explains Victor Strasburger, MD, from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

Luckily, researchers have found no link between social media and obesity. This means that while teens use social media, they aren’t sedentary. I mean, yeah. You’re still living your life, but you’re also documenting, posting, and talking about it online. You can’t take any great Instagrams from the couch.

Instead, researchers want to use this info to further investigate how social media use affects body image and drug use, but they won’t be able to determine that for some time. Maybe they’ll keep us updated on Twitter.

(Image via Shutterstock)