Canard Thursday: Sugar Makes Kids Hyper
ca-nard
—noun
[kuh-nard; Fr. kuh-nar]
- a false or baseless, usually derogatory story, report, or rumor.
- Cookery. a duck intended or used for food.
The term probably came from the French phrase: “vendre un canard à moitié”, meaning “to sell half a duck.”
Kids seem a little out of control this week? A little crazy? Just a bit… hyper?
Must be all the sugar from Easter, right? Probably not, at least according to numerous studies (including several of the double-blind, randomized controlled “gold standard” variety) that looked at the effects of sugar intake and activity levels in children.
The consensus is that sugar intake has little, if any, impact on children’s behavior, even among those diagnosed with ADHD.
It may, however, have an impact on how parents perceive their children’s behavior.
A 1994 study published in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology apparently found that mothers who were told their children had received a large dose of sugar when they had actually received a placebo were more likely to rate their children as “significantly more hyperactive” than mothers who were told their children had received placebo. (Critics warn that the placebo used was aspartame; an additive that itself has been suspected of causing or exacerbating hyperactive behavior, although this has not been substantiated by research.)
Nutritionist and blogger extraordinaire Sandy Szwarc of Junkfood Science sums it up nicely:
“There is no credible evidence to support worries that children today are eating excessive amounts of sugar, or that sugar in their diets is contributing to hyperactivity or ADHD or that is a causative factor in any disease.”
(If you’re not familiar with Sandy’s work at Junkfood Science, check it out. Seriously. Go. Now.)
So, friends and neighbors, fear not that the chocolate bunny your well-intentioned mother-in-law gave little Kody or Cassidy will turn him or her into a Tasmanian devil. If it happens, it’s not the sugar. It’s probably just your parenting.
Google-Fu
Hoover, DW; Milich, R (August 1994), “Effects of sugar ingestion expectancies on mother-child reactions”, J Abnorm Child Psychol. 22(4):501-15.
Krummel, DA; Seligson, FH; Guthrie, HA (January 1996), “Hyperactivity: is candy causal?”, Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 36(1-2):31-47.
Benton, D (May 2008), “Sucrose and behavioral problems”, Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 48(5):385-401.
Vreeman, RC; Carroll, AE (December 2008) “Festive medical myths”, BMJ 2008;337:a2769.
Szwarc, Sandy. “Sweet kids and hyperactivity”, retrieved on 2009-04-16.
I love Jackie Mason!
Reminds me of Jackie Mason’s observation that he replaced sugar water with Saccharine water in his humingbird feeder and the little flutterers got artificial diabetes.