Growing up, my parents never let me eat foods with a lot of sugar right before bed because they said they would make me restless. Naturally, I used that excuse when babysitting kids. If they asked for a sugary snack, I would come up with every excuse not to give it to them in hopes to avoid unnecessary hyperactivity. But does sugar actually cause hyperactivity? Or is it a myth our parents created in order to keep us healthier?

A study was done in which experimenters evaluated the behavior of children on diets composed of high levels of sucrose, aspartame, or saccharin. Two groups of children were tested: 23 kids aged 6-10 years, who were described by their parents to have responded adversely to sugar, and a group of 25 normal kids, ages 3-5. In order to control the children’s diets, the experimenters removed all the food from the kids’ homes and replaced them with the experimental diets weekly. These diets were, “designed to keep the appearance of the sweetened products similar, regardless of the sweetener used.” Additionally, things that are typically believed to influence behavior, such as caffeine, were kept at low levels throughout the diets. The children were observed on these diets for three weeks. They were rated by parents, teachers, and the experimenters using the following criteria: “attention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, destructive-aggressive acts, and motor behavior scores on standardized cognitive tests, and by self-reports of mood and physical state.” At the end of each dietary period, the kids were also given an oral sucrose tolerance test.

The experiment uncovered that sugar has no significant effect on behavioral or cognitive abilities. Sugar intake may be correlated with alterations in behavior in some children, but overall it does not cause hyperactivity.

The problem I have with this study is the fact that it was done on such young children. Young kids tend to be hyper by nature. So, how could they accurately measure hyperactivity if the experimenters did not observe the kids when they were not on the special diets? If the experimenters observed the children prior to the experiment in their natural states, and then changed their diets and increased their sugar intake, they would be able to see if their hyperactivity truly increased. This is what they should have done in their experiment. Therefore, I cannot accept these results.