Every holiday we hear discussions of children’s going into “sugar shock,” and becoming hyperactive after eating too much candy. One such article is from that reliable purveyor of health misinformation, the Huffington Post, where Connie Bennett holds forth on this premise.
But, research has continually shown no relationship whatever between consumption of sugar and children’s hyperactivity. A really good summary of research in this area is the abstract of a paper in Critical Review of Food Science Nutrition published by Krummel, Seligson and Guthrie in 1996. In this paper they summarize 12 double blind studies in which parents who claimed their children became hyperactive on eating sugar were asked to observe their children after they were given sugar or a placebo. The conclusions were that sugar had no effect.
Likewise chocolate has no effect, and neither do food colorings. The issue of food additives was restudied in 2004 and the same conclusions were reached. Sugar, food and food additives do not seem to have any measurable effect on children’s behavior, including ADHD children.
It is just as you might have suspected: it is the parties, the costumes, the activities such as trick or treating that get kids wound up, not the food.
The solution? Just continue to do a good job being reasonable parents and keep your children from eating so much candy that they get sick. Some parents think it is better to let the kids eat a lot of candy every day until it is gone, some ration it out and some let it slowly “disappear.” Do what works for your kids and family and you and they will do just fine.
Oh, and be sure to keep chocolate away from your dog and other pets. Chocolate contains theobromine, which can be toxic to them.
The trick or treat candies in the photo came from Stop and Shop this year, and the excess will be gone in a few days by taking them to meetings and the office.
Related recipes
- Sweet potatoes with sweet cream gravy
- Banana candle salad with candy corn
- Wieners and beans for Halloween, with candy corn
- Baked apples with candy corn for Halloween
- Corn muffins with candy corn for Halloween
- Marshmallow Peeps salad
- Marshmallow Peeps sundae
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Comments
Jim- when was the last time you were around a bunch of 7 year old on a candy binge on top of some soda?
I respectfully disagree with the scientific findings. I have food dye allergies and my son has definite reactions to too much sugar. If he eats 2 slices of apple pie (and believe me a 17 year old at 6'2" can do that easily) he gets twitchy and nervous. I've learned to bake with a mixture of splenda and sugar to try to help ward off the twitches after a cookie binge (you can try to hide them, but they find all the secret places).
I'll send the candy to your house then?
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