Does Sugar Make Children Hyperactive?

Numerous studies over the past three decades have either tried to show a relationship between sugar and hyperactive behavior, or attempted to disprove one. In late 2008, researchers published an exhaustive report that exonerated sugar as a cause of hyperactivity in children.

Early Attention to Sugar

For several decades, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has been top-of-mind for countless parents and teachers whose children and students, respectively, have been diagnosed with it. After Ritalin, a prescription medication used to treat ADHD, was introduced in the 1960s, concerned parents and doctors began seeking non-pharmaceutical solutions to manage the disorder.

In his book, The Feingold Diet, published in 1973, pediatric allergist Benjamin Feingold, M.D., explored the effects of food chemicals on children's behavior and advised eliminating salicylates (chemicals found in plants and an ingredient of aspirin and other pain-relieving medications), food colorings and artificial flavoring as a treatment for hyperactivity. While sugar itself was not on Feingold's list, it was a key ingredient in many foods that were. Parents and advocacy groups began to turn their attention to sugar and its possible role in hyperactivity.

Early Report Links Sugar and Hyperactivity

In 1977, the trade journal Food and Cosmetics Toxicology (since renamed Food and Chemical Toxicology) reported on a three-year study of how sugar is processed by pediatric ADHD patients. It found that a majority of the children had abnormal results from a glucose tolerance test. While the study did not explain the connection, nor have any subsequent studies, at the time many parents---including those whose children had not been diagnosed with ADHD---interpreted it to mean that sugar is a cause of hyperactivity.

Perception is Reality

A study published in the August 1994 Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology looked at the role perception plays in the sugar-hyperactivity relationship. Researchers told parents that their children had just been given sugar (when they had not); parents who had preconceived notions that sugar causes hyperactivity were more likely to identify their children's subsequent behavior as hyperactive.

Disproving the Relationship

Since the mid-1990s, several wide-ranging studies have been published showing no relationship between sugar and hyperactivity. The Nov. 22, 1995 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that sugar doses not affect behavior. In 1999, WebMD posted an article citing additional research showing that sugar does not cause hyperactivity in children.

Most significantly, in December 2008, two researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine published a widely distributed article in the British Medical Journal debunking several medical myths; first on their list was that sugar causes hyperactivity. They cited 12 "double-blind randomized controlled trials" of sugar's effects on children; none, they wrote, even those specifically addressing children diagnosed with ADHD, proved any correlation between sugar and behavior.

Guilt by Association

Just because sugar does not cause hyperactivity in children doesn't mean that sugary foods won't. Researchers have suggested that food colorings, preservatives and caffeine---commonly found in sweets and sodas---can indeed cause hyperactivity in children, and research into these areas continues. Additionally, they say the stimulation from the events themselves where sugar is consumed in mass quantities---such as birthday parties---also can lead to hyperactive behavior.

References

• Dec 08 BMJ article debunking sugar myth
• 1999 CNN article debunking myth
• 1977 Food and Cosmetics Toxicology report on glucose test with ADHD kids

Resources

• Dec 08 Science News article on debunking of sugar myth
• Information on the Feingold Diet