bjones
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It’s funny how you think you know something just because it’s been repeated to you over and over again. Then, when you think about it, you question whether it is really true or not. This happens a lot in the area of personal health and medicine. So much medical folklore exists that it is often difficult to distinguish the truth from fiction. To make matters worse, if we believe something is true, our mind automatically finds little details that seem to support the idea.
You can probably tell what I’m getting at here. No matter what your friends and family have told you, no matter how many children or grandchildren they have, and no matter if they are health professionals – the definitive answer to the question about sugar causing hyperactivity is: No. Sugar in no way causes hyperactivity in children or anyone else. However, the idea has become so ingrained into our consciousness that even some doctors will tell you otherwise.
If you think about it, the answer makes sense. If sugar caused hyperactivity, obesity would be a rare occurrence. People get overweight and obese by the simple fact that while sugar provides us with energy, it does not provide us with sudden urges to use that energy. That’s why people eat ice cream and candy yet still can’t get up off the sofa to burn off some of those calories.
However, you don’t have to take my word for it. A total of 23 rigorous, scientific medical studies took place between 1982 and 1994 on the connection between sugar and hyperactivity. Every one of them found absolutely no correlation between eating sugar and hyperactivity. In most of the tests, kids were given candies or Kool-Aid. Some of them were sweetened with zero-calorie artificial sweeteners. Others were sweetened with good old fashioned white sugar. The results showed that no discernible difference existed between the two groups. These results were repeated over and over again.
In another related test, mothers were tested along with their children. All the mothers believed their children were hyperactive after eating sweets. Researchers divided the mothers and their sons into two groups and told them one group was getting sugar and the other was getting no sugar. Without telling the mothers, the researchers didn’t give sugar to either group of children. However, the mothers who thought their sons were given sugar reported observing hyperactive behavior, and the mothers who thought their sons were not given sugar did not notice hyperactive behavior.
One theory about the observance of hyperactive behavior after eating sugar is that sugary foods are often given in festive situations, such as birthday parties. Children are reacting to the situation or event and not the sugar.
 Posted 4702 day ago
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