If you are one of those moms that tells their kids they can’t have a lot of sugar because it makes them bounce off the walls- don’t let your kids read this. The excuse of sugar making your child hyper is a myth.
Sorry to say, but sugar isn’t to blame for hyperactive behavior. At least 23 scientific studies have evaluated the effect of sugar on children’s behavior in a controlled environment. In these studies, children were given foods or drinks containing either sugar or another sweetener, such as aspartame, and then the children’s behavior was observed for several hours afterward. Neither the children nor the researchers knew which sweetener each child had received until the conclusion of the study.
All the studies came to the same conclusion: in a controlled environment, sugar has no effect on the children’s attentiveness, behavior or alertness.
I know many of you are scoffing right now. You’ve seen your kids go wild after eating something sweet. I’ve seen it. I’ve baby sat it. I’ve loved my niece and nephew despite of it. So what explains it?
One thought is that children react to some other ingredient besides the sugar. Caffeine is often found in sweet foods and drinks, like soda and chocolate, and caffeine is definitely shown to effect alertness and give a little pick-me-up- otherwise I wouldn’t have made it to work for the past few years. For kids, who are smaller and are more sensitive to caffeine, even that tiny bit found in chocolate that wouldn’t effect us adults makes a marked difference in your child’s behavior.
More widely believed, however, is that kids respond to something called the “special occasion effect.” Quite simply, when your child receives a lot of sugar-laden foods, like cake, ice cream, soda and cookies, it tends to be during extremely stimulating circumstances, such as birthday parties, dinners out, or holidays. Small children may misbehave on special occasions because their routine has been disrupted, they may have missed naps and they aren’t used to the noise, extra people or loosened supervision. Older children may act up because they are simply excited about the event.
The good news is, however, that your kids shouldn’t eat a lot of sugar anyway, for different reasons. Sugar depresses the immune system, leaving you more susceptible to illness. Sugar is also digested quickly, causing your body to crave more sugar to replace the depleted energy in your system, causing overeating and weight gain. Sugar also promotes LDL cholesterol (the bad kind) and can reduce your HDL cholesterol levels (the good kind.) Sugar is also highly acidic and can cause tooth decay, acidic stomach and blocks the absorption of calcium which is important for strong bones.
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