One glass of this drink will not only make you addicted, but also make you depressed and anxious! Women should especially drink less!

With its rich and colorful flavors, milk tea has successfully attracted consumers of all ages and cultural backgrounds around the world. Through well-designed marketing strategies and easy accessibility, this drink has not only become the first choice for young people to socialize and relax, but has also gradually evolved into a global phenomenon.

Whether as a "comfort food" or a fashion icon, milk tea has become one of the most popular drinks of our time due to its unique charm.

Image source: Author

A recent survey of 5,281 college students in Beijing by a research team from Tsinghua University and China's Central University of Finance and Economics found that milk tea addiction does exist and is associated with psychological problems such as depression and anxiety.

Does milk tea addiction really exist?

The researchers first used the Likert Scale to investigate how often these young people drank milk tea in the past year. The Likert Scale is a questionnaire tool that assesses an individual's attitude toward a specific issue or viewpoint, usually consisting of a series of statements and a rating range from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree." The coding is 1 = 3 cups a day, 2 = 2 cups a day, 3 = 1 cup a day, 4 = 4-6 cups a week, 5 = 2-3 cups a week, 6 = 1 cup a week, 7 = 2-3 cups a month, 8 = 1 cup a month, 9 = 6-11 cups a year, 10 = almost never drink milk tea. By collecting and analyzing this data, the researchers tried to quantify and understand the general views of the participants.

Frequency of drinking milk tea among teenagers. Image source: Reference [1]

Almost half of the respondents said they drink at least one cup of milk tea a week. Among them, 2.6% of teenagers drink 4 to 6 cups of milk tea a week, and 20.6% of teenagers drink 2 to 3 cups of milk tea a week. This finding is a wake-up call for everyone, because milk tea is popular not only in China, but also all over the world.

Next, the researchers referred to the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which is considered the main authoritative guide for diagnosing mental illnesses worldwide. Milk tea addiction may range from "frequency of drinking milk tea", "persistent craving/dependence symptoms", "guilt" to "withdrawal symptoms", "tolerance symptoms", "inability to stop", and "intention to stop". They proposed that milk tea addiction may include the following six phenomena:

(1) The amount and duration of milk tea consumption exceeded expectations;

(2) tried to quit drinking milk tea many times but failed;

(3) People tend to drink milk tea when they are in a bad mood;

(4) Continuing to consume milk tea despite knowing the adverse consequences;

(5) Tolerance develops, and the consumption of milk tea needs to be increased to obtain the desired pleasure;

(6) Withdrawal symptoms occur after reducing or stopping drinking milk tea.

According to the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), the item scores were added together, and a higher score indicated a greater likelihood of milk tea addiction. Although the milk tea addiction scale was adapted from the caffeine addiction scale and the most commonly used alcohol addiction scale, the researchers conducted reliability and validity tests to ensure its reliability. By adopting this recognized addiction scale, the researchers found that some young people showed signs of addiction.

This is the first study to explore the potential addictiveness of milk tea consumption and its impact on adolescent mental health. The results show that milk tea consumption may induce addiction symptoms, including consumption frequency, dependence/craving, withdrawal desire, inability to quit, tolerance, and guilt.

Does milk tea addiction affect mental health?

The researchers further explored loneliness, depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms and even suicidal thoughts among young people through questionnaire surveys, and found that milk tea addiction is significantly correlated with a variety of adverse mental health conditions.

Specifically, there was a positive correlation between loneliness and milk tea addiction, with a correlation coefficient of r=0.19, p<0.001. This means that individuals are more likely to become addicted to milk tea when they feel more lonely. In addition, milk tea addiction also showed a moderate positive correlation with depressive symptoms (r=0.31, p<0.001) and anxiety symptoms (r=0.28, p<0.001). These data indicate that milk tea addiction may be an important indicator of mental health problems. This finding is very concerning and provides a new perspective for mental health experts: eating habits and consumption behaviors may be important dimensions for understanding mental health problems.

Correlation between milk tea addiction and mental health outcomes. Image source: Reference [1]

To further confirm the strong association between milk tea addiction and depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation, the researchers used a general linear model (GLM). The results of this model showed that the higher the level of milk tea addiction, the higher the risk of depression (b=0.24, p<0.001), anxiety (b=0.21, p<0.001), and suicidal ideation (b=0.06, p<0.001). This further confirms the view that milk tea addiction is significantly associated with poor mental health. The application of this mathematical model enhances the credibility of the research results and allows researchers to more accurately predict the relationship between different variables. In particular, the association is clearer after controlling for other factors that may affect the results, such as age, gender, income, and loneliness.

The analysis of the mediation effect further enhances the explanatory power of this series of findings. By using milk tea addiction as a mediating variable, the indirect effect between loneliness and mental health was analyzed. The results showed that loneliness was significantly positively correlated with milk tea addiction, which in turn was significantly positively correlated with depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation, indicating that milk tea addiction played a mediating role between loneliness and poor mental health. It reveals that milk tea addiction is not only a significant indicator of the relationship between loneliness and poor mental health, but also actually plays a mediating role.

Indirect effects of milk tea addiction on loneliness and mental health outcomes. Image source: Reference [3]

This means that loneliness may indirectly increase the risk of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation by increasing the frequency of milk tea drinking. This view provides a possible new direction for mental health interventions, namely indirectly improving mental health by reducing milk tea addiction.

The association between milk tea addiction and poor mental health: a possible explanation

The previous article explored the link between milk tea addiction and poor mental health conditions, covering aspects such as depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. So, how might milk tea addiction lead to poor mental health?

One plausible explanation is that milk tea usually contains high levels of sugar. Earlier studies have revealed that excessive sugar intake may lead to increased cortisol levels, which in turn interferes with the normal functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The HPA axis is a core hormone system responsible for regulating the body's response to stress and has an important impact on emotions and behaviors. When this system is out of balance, an individual's emotional regulation may be impaired, increasing the risk of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. In other words, frequent consumption of milk tea may cause an imbalance in the HPA axis due to its high sugar content, leading to mental health problems.

In 2022, researchers from Anhui Medical University conducted animal experiments using mice to examine the direct effects of long-term drinking of milk tea. The results showed anxiety, depressive-like behavior, and impaired cognitive function, but did not find that drinking milk tea could cause addictive behavior in mice. This may be because mice lack compensatory mechanisms similar to humans, which may lead to an addictive response to milk tea. Therefore, these differences must be taken into account when interpreting animal research results related to human behavior.

Why do women prefer milk tea?

Interestingly, milk tea addiction is more pronounced in women, and there may be multiple factors contributing to this phenomenon.

Several studies have shown that in terms of taste preference, women generally prefer sweet flavors, while men may prefer salty or spicy foods. This taste preference may be influenced by both biological and cultural factors, making women more likely to be attracted to high-sugar milk tea.

In addition, women may tend to use sweets as an emotion regulation tool, that is, to cope with stress or negative emotions through food. When facing emotional stress, women may rely more on food, especially sweets, as a relief tool. Therefore, milk tea may be seen as a "stress reliever" to help women cope with daily stress and mood swings.

Women's preference for milk tea may be the result of multiple factors, which also explains why women are the main consumers of milk tea and are more likely to develop milk tea-related addiction.

Conclusion: Excessive milk tea consumption may lead to addictive behaviors, which in turn may be associated with mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. In addition, as a compensatory strategy for regulating emotions, milk tea addiction may mediate the relationship between loneliness and mental health problems.

Here I want to remind you that the situations described in this article are based on the premise of milk tea addiction. Only those who drink milk tea frequently need to pay attention. Friends who order a cup occasionally don't need to worry about it. However, it is undeniable that the milk tea currently on the market is indeed not a very healthy drink in all aspects. Let's stop at the right amount and don't drink too much.

References

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[9]Yao, Yitan, et al. "Effects of chronic bubble tea administration on behavior and cognition in C57BL/6 mice." Frontiers in Psychiatry 13 (2022): 1044052.

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Author: Denovo Popular Science Writer

Review | Ruan Guangfeng, Deputy Director of Kexin Food and Health Information Exchange Center