Soft drinks with caffeine are addictive.

A new scientific study has found that some soft drink manufacturers are adding caffeine to their products, which increases the likelihood that children will develop mild addiction to caffeine.

Professor Russell Kester and his team at Deakin University in Victoria, Australia, found that tasters could not tell whether a drink contained caffeine anyway. Beverage manufacturers claim that caffeine added to their drinks is less likely to be addictive because the bitterness of the drink neutralizes the sweetness of the soft drink.

According to the survey, more than half of soft drinks on the market contain caffeine, and cola drinks are particularly high in caffeine. Custer's team concluded that caffeine had nothing to do with taste, and that beverage makers may be adding caffeine to their products to change consumer behavior. Custer has called on authorities to ban caffeinated drinks from being sold to children. He worries that if not, children will be at increased risk for addiction.

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