The research, published in PLOS ONE, showed that over 27 percent of teens surpassed recommended sugar intake and 21 percent exceed recommended caffeine from soda and energy drinks.
Males drank more sodas and energy drinks than females, and young in Grade 8 consumed more than those in Grade 10.
It is concerning as many exceed recommended levels of both sugar and caffeine.
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“There is a trend towards reduced energy drink and soda consumption between 2013 and 2016 which is our latest data, but greater electronic device use, particularly TV, is linked to more consumption of added sugar and caffeine among adolescents,” said pediatrician Dr Katherine Morrison, who led the research together with colleagues at McMaster and California State University — Fullerton.
“Addressing this through counseling or health promotion could potentially help.”
To find out the main reason for this, researchers looked at information on 32,418 students in Grades 8 and 10 from a national, repeated U.S. study called Monitoring the Future Survey.
The researchers found that despite the trend towards total reduced soda and energy drink intake between 2013 and 2016, it was evident that greater use of electronic devices, particularly TV, was linked to higher consumption of both.
An additional hour per day of TV was linked to a 32 per cent higher risk of exceeding World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations for sugar. Each hour more per day of TV was also linked to a 28 per cent increased risk of exceeding WHO caffeine recommendations.
Each hour per day of talking on a mobile phone or using social media was also associated with an increased risk of exceeding both added sugar and caffeine recommendations.
The researchers were surprised to find video game use was only weakly linked to more caffeine consumption.
“Given the marketing campaigns that target video gamers, we expected a particularly strong association between caffeine intake from energy drinks or sodas with video game use, but TV was linked more strongly,” said Morrison.
However, using a computer for school was linked to a lower likelihood of exceeding sugar consumption cut-offs.
In the same context, for children between two and 18 years old, the daily intake of added sugar should not exceed six teaspoons, while the daily intake of caffeine for adolescents 12-18 years old should not exceed 100 mg.
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