"Sugar Makes Children Hyperactive" and Other Myths

[Thorin]

I remember reading this same factoid in a Today's Parent magazine some years ago...  Basically, we are so convinced that sugar makes children hyperactive that we believe we see them become more hyperactive when we're told they just had sugar.  Well, dr. Carroll and dr. Vreeman have de-bunked the myth:

Does sugar make children hyperactive? Festive myths explored

For the Christmas issue of the British Medical Journal, Dr. Aaron Carroll and Dr. Rachel Vreeman of the Indiana University School of Medicine debunk common holiday myths that have little evidence in scientific studies.

The pair said they did the study to remind people of the importance of keeping a healthy skepticism.

"Only by investigation, discussion, and debate can we reveal the existence of such myths and move the field of medicine forward," they wrote.

[..]

Parents were so convinced about the myth that when they think their children have been given a drink containing sugar (when it is actually sugar-free) they rated their children's behaviour as more hyperactive.

"Regardless of what parents might believe, however, sugar is not to blame for out-of-control little ones," the researchers wrote.

After reading that bit, you might also be interested in their work from last year:

7 Medical Myths Even Doctors Believe

Myth: You should drink at least eight glasses of water a day.

Fact: "There is no medical evidence to suggest that you need that much water," said Dr. Rachel Vreeman, a pediatrics research fellow at the university and co-author of the journal article. Vreeman thinks this myth can be traced back to a 1945 recommendation from the Nutrition Council that a person consume the equivalent of 8 glasses (64 ounces) of fluid a day. Over the years, "fluid" turned to water. But fruits and vegetables, plus coffee and other liquids, count.

By the way, 64 ounces is 1.89 liters

[Tom]

I guess that 8 glasses number includes how some liquids actually dehydrate you? Which is why its "so high"?

[Darren Dirt]

moar myths.

[Darren Dirt]

BUT sugar DOES contribute to heart disease*. Probably as much as saturated fat does -- but not enough studies have been done to determine what ratio for any of the factors.

Because conflict of interest, and decades of public misconception and scientists' laziness / fear of losing grant $:


http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/09/sugar-industry-bought-off-scientists-skewed-dietary-guidelines-for-decades/

Back in the 1960s, a sugar industry executive wrote fat checks to a group of Harvard researchers so that they'd downplay the links between sugar and heart disease in a prominent medical journal -- and the researchers did it, according to historical documents reported Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

Corrupted researchers and skewed scientific literature successfully helped draw attention away from the health risks of sweets and shift the blame solely to fats -- for nearly five decades.

Low-fat, high-sugar diets that health experts subsequently encouraged are now seen as a main driver of the current obesity epidemic.

The Sugar Research Foundation ... funded a literature review that downplayed sugars' role in heart disease and shifted blame solely to saturated fat.

During the write-up, which wasn't published until 1967, the SRF's John Hickson was in frequent contact with the researchers, asking to review drafts and reminding them of the SRF's interests.

The article, published as a two-part review in New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), cherry-picked data, discounted studies that disputed its conclusion, and overstated the consistency of data suggesting that fat was the primary driver of heart disease. In conclusion, the review stated that there was "no doubt" that the only way to dodge heart disease was to reduce saturated fat.

The review made no mention of funding from the sugar industry.

...Today, nutrition professor Marion Nestle points out, "the balance has shifted to less concern about fat and much greater concern about sugars." But, the story should act as a cautionary tale of the potential harms from industry-sponsored studies.

* and of course, the obvious increase in obesity since the 1980s... back when Susan Powter and others made the masses fearful of just about ANY kind of fat. Fear works, the myths stuck for a generation and still going pretty strong...