Is ADHD associated with sugar intake?
Before we go any further, let's dispel a myth. Many of the parents of my childhood and teenage ADHD patients have strongly believed that sugar makes their kids hyper. One morn, speaking of her ADHD child, told me, "If my kid eats or drinks anything with sugar in it, he'll start bouncing off the walls. Yesterday, he had a snack that a friend gave him, For the next three hours, I couldn't calm him down."
Some of my patients even think that sugar causes ADHD. In fact, in a survey conducted by the University of Florida, 59 percent of African-American parents and 30 percent of Anglo parents attributed ADHD to excessive sugar in their kids' diets. In another study, more than 80 percent of Canadian primary school teachers believed that sugar consumption contributed to increasing activity of normal children and to the behavioral problems of hyperactive children.
Moreover, in the three years prior to the study; 55 parent of all teachers had counseled parents to consider reducing their child's sugar consumption to control hyperactivity, and parents frequently did so. However, the available scientific evidence does not support the theory that sugar consumption has significant adverse effects on children's behavior. Sugar In ADHD Children
In fact, in researching this post, I identified over 20 medical studies that have evaluated the effect of sugar on the behavior of children. In the majority of these studies kids given food or drink containing either sugar or another sweetener such as saccharin or aspartame.
Then the children observed and/or tested for several hours. The studies were "blinded." In other words, neither the kids nor the researchers knew whether sugar or another sweetener had been ingested.
Here's an example of one of these studies: Researchers at Vanderbilt University conducted a double-blind controlled trial with two groups of children: 25 normal preschool children (3 to 5 years of age) and 23 school-age children (6 to 10 yrs) described by their parents as sensitive to sugar. The children and their families followed a different diet for each of three consecutive three-week periods. One diet was high in sucrose with no artificial sweetener, another was low in sucrose and contained aspartame as a sweetener, and the third was low in sucrose and contained saccharin (placebo) am a sweetener.
All the diets were essentially free of additives, artificial food coloring, and preservatives. The children's behavior and cognitive performance were evaluated weekly. The authors concluded, "Even when intake exceeds typical dietary level, neither dietary sucrose nor aspartame affects children's behavior or cognitive function."
Virtually all of the studies that I have reviewed have concluded that there is no difference in the behavior of the kids whether they are given sugar or not, In the very few studies in which an effect was noticed, it was very faint. Sugar In ADHD Children
For example, in a study that tested kids' attention conducted at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center, children with ADHD who had been given sugar had slightly lower scores than the kids who had consumed aspartame. But in a study at the University of Toronto, activity levels in children who had drunk sugar-sweetened Kool-Aid were slightly lower than those of children who had drunk aspartame-sweetened Kool-Aid.
These studies had the exact opposite results. However, in both of these studies the impact was barely perceptible. In fact, when doctors from Vanderbilt University looked at all 20 of these studies (in what is called a meta-analysis), they concluded that there was no evidence that sugar has any effect on a child's behavior or mental performance. These authors concluded, "Sugar does not affect the behavior or cognitive performance of children. The strong belief of parents may be due to expectancy and common association."
But, despite the medical evidence, I find that most parents find it difficult to accept the findings that sugar does not change behavior. Why? Simply because many parents' observations are that when they give their kids sugar-containing food or snack drinks, they see their kids "go crazy"! Why is this? One explanation given by the experts is that the kids may be responding to some other ingredient in sweet foods or drinks, perhaps caffeine. This would be a possible culprit in soft drinks, as a can of cola can contain as much as or more than the amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee.
If you want to learn more, you can get Sugar In ADHD Children and see how to guide your children into a useful person to the society.
