The “Hype” About Sugar and Children’s Behavior

Abstract

Most kids get “hyper” from time to time, especially in the pre-school years and especially when stimulated by their peers. By the time they start primary school, however, many children can modulate their behavior by focusing their attention on quiet tasks and activities and staying in one place while doing them. The idea that “allergies” or other types of physiological reactions to certain foods could cause behavioral problems began in the early decades of the twentieth century and by the 1970s centered on food additives and sugar. The food additive theory was effectively disproven by randomized, double-blind trials of elimination diets, but the firm belief in the sugar “high” or “rush” has persisted in the face of uniformly negative evidence from many randomized trials of similar design. Those trials have demonstrated that sugar does not impair attention, promote hyperactive behavior, or interfere with cognitive function in children who are normal and healthy, those who are judged to be sugar-sensitive by their parents, or even those diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Nor does sugar taken just before bedtime appear to interfere with sleep. Instead, parents’ firm belief in the sugar high appears to create expectations of “hyper” behavior that bias interpretation of their children’s behavior after consuming sugar.