To the Editor We read with great interest the study by Edwin Thanarajah et al published in JAMA Psychiatry. The authors present important findings on the association between soft drink consumption and the presence of depressive symptoms in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Their analyses further suggest that this association is mediated by increased levels of Eggerthella, providing valuable insight into the potential microbiome-related mechanisms underlying MDD. The study reported that compared with healthy controls, soft drink consumption predicted the incidence of MDD diagnosis (odds ratio, 1.08; 95% CI, 1.01-1.16; P = .03) and symptom severity (partial η2, 0.01; 95% CI, 0-0.04; P < .001). Mediation analyses demonstrated that Eggerthella significantly mediated the association between soft drink consumption and MDD (diagnosis: P = .01; severity: P = .005), accounting for 3.82% and 5.00% of the overall effect, respectively. In their discussion, the authors suggest that increased Eggerthella growth may reduce butyrate production and enhance gut inflammation, thereby promoting neuroinflammatory processes that could mechanistically link soft drink consumption to depressive symptoms.