Posted on 05/11/2005 5:24:39 AM PDT by FlyLow
1. True or false: If you give a kid sugar, he'll get hyper.
2. True or false: Eat sugar, and your energy may slump.
3. True or false: It's a good idea to drink eight glasses of plain water every day.
With so many myths in our lives, perhaps the surprise is that one of these familiar theories is actually true.
Parents say the first one all the time: Sugar makes kids wild and crazy. Even some kids say it. "I go really nuts when I have candy," one girl told ABC News. Another told us it affects her so strongly that she'll change her behavior, "like sometimes I'm like oh, my G-d, I'll clean my room." Oh, my G-d, indeed.
Not that it's limited to the young. One woman told us, "You can have like one candy bar and be off-the-wall."
But the idea that sugar causes hyperactivity is a myth. "The research is very clear," said Cathy Nonas, a dietician at New York's North General Hospital. "Sugar does not make a child 'hyperactive.'"
Many studies back her up. In one, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, some kids ate sugared foods while others got foods with artificial sweeteners.
Their parents and the researchers didn't know who was eating sugar and who wasn't. The researchers monitored the kids for things like irritability and hyperactivity. They found no difference.
"There is no such thing as a 'sugar high,'" Nonas said. "And there is no such thing, as 'sugar making you nuts.' There just isn't."
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
"When my son has something with High Fructose Corn Syrup in it, he goes bananas."
I am much more concerned with the High Fructose Corn Syrup than sugar and I avoid white sugar as much as possible.
Tryptophan. The glass of warm milk effect.
Tryptophan. The glass of warm milk effect.
I am fairly certain it is the food coloring that makes kids hyper (something usually paired with sugar in kid-favorite products). A common red food coloring agent is worst - the agents themselves have pharmokinetic effects. Not a big deal or anything, but something to keep in mind if you don't want the kids to be bouncing off the walls.
High fructose corn syrup...http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A8003-2003Mar10?language=printer
As a teacher of a Sunday School class of 3-5 year olds, I can honestly say that I see a marked difference in the kids who come in after eating donuts or something like that, for breakfast, and those that do not. I think a lot of ADHD cases could be fixed by cutting down on a kids sugar intake, and giving them more excercise time during school.
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Why I always have my coffee with a scoop of mashed badedehs (the old Brooklyn Irish pronunciation)
One of the kids in my class can NEVER have red koolaid or anything dyed red. it makes her so wild she can't sit still for a second.
That's okay as long as you turn the potatoes into Vodka first..........(the old Irish version).............
They use glucose (aka dextrose) - which is the body's main source of energy. It is what other sugars are broken down into by the body.
When my oldest was born, the hospital gave him a bottle of sweetened water to tide him over until the scheduled mommy feeding time. He went bananas kicking and screaming and waving his little arms around until he worn himself out and fell asleep. The doctor started running tests to see what the problem was but nothing could be found. Since I breast fed him for the first few months with plain water in between feedings, the problem seemed to disappear but as soon as I put him on a bottle/baby food he got hyper again. Doctor told me that blond/blue eyed boys were particularly sensitive to both sugar (in all it's forms) and food additives but that they usually grew out of it. Luckily, he grew out of it by the time he started school. Nice end result is that to this day, he rarely eats sweets since his 'treats' when he was young were home dried fruits.
My son is now 6 and actually looks at the labels on foods, drinks, etc. He is blond with blue eyes too.
If the child is given good food, such as cheese, the calming effect is remarkable. I think most parents will agree that pure dessert food will make a kid jumpy and hard to manage while protein will be calming.
It's not the sugar. It's the food coloring (especially red) or it's the guar gum or it's something else, but it's not the sugar.
Wonderful habit to learn so early in life. Hopefully, the 'grow out of it' will happen with him also. If not, sounds like he's already accustomed to monitoring his intake.
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