Does sugar make kids hyperactive?
This is without a doubt false, report Vreeman and Carroll, who are both pediatricians at Riley Hospital for Children. They write that “in at least 12 double-blinded, randomized, controlled trials, scientists have examined how children react to diets containing different levels of sugar. None of these studies, not even studies looking specifically at children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, could detect any differences in behavior between the children who had sugar and those who did not.” This includes sugar from candy, chocolate and natural sources. Even in studies of children who were considered “sensitive” to sugar, children did not behave differently after eating sugar-full or sugar-free diets. But what is most amazing, says Carroll, is that in studies in which parents think their children have consumed sugar, parents rate their children’s behavior as more hyperactive, even if in fact no sugar was consumed. “Obviously the differences in the children’s behavior were al
