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SugarMyth
Busting the sugar myth...
The evidence is settled

Sugar does not make your kids hyperactive.

Everyone knows it does. Researchers have been testing that belief since the 1970s and keep coming up empty. Below: where the idea started, and the 1994 experiment that explains why you see it at every birthday party anyway.

Experiments pooled
23
Behavioral measures
39
Effect found
None

Origin

The belief was never based on a study about sugar.

In 1973, allergist Benjamin Feingold popularized an elimination diet aimed at artificial dyes and flavorings, which he believed caused hyperactivity in children. Sugar was not part of his hypothesis.

It got swept in anyway. Because parents already suspected sugar, it was filed under the general heading of “food additives.” Once it was on that list, the association hardened into common knowledge. The belief spread first and got tested second.

The record

Then researchers went looking for it.

Over five decades, in better and better controlled designs, nobody has found it.

  1. 1973Myth forms

    The Feingold diet reaches the mainstream

    An additive-elimination diet becomes widely adopted. Sugar is folded in by association, not by evidence.

  2. 1982First verdict

    The National Institutes of Health finds no proven link

    An NIH consensus statement concludes that no link between sugar and hyperactivity has been scientifically demonstrated.

  3. 1994The twist

    The effect turns up in the parents

    35 boys aged 5 to 7, all given an aspartame placebo. Mothers told their son had received sugar rated him significantly more hyperactive than mothers who were told the truth.

    Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology
  4. 1995Meta-analysis

    23 experiments pooled. No effect on behavior or cognition.

    A meta-analysis drawing on 23 experiments across 16 papers finds that sugar does not affect children’s behavior or cognitive performance. The authors note they cannot rule out a very small effect.

    JAMA
  5. TrialControlled diets

    Children described as “sugar-sensitive” showed no difference

    Three separate three-week diets (high sucrose, aspartame, and a saccharin placebo) produced no significant differences across 39 behavioral and cognitive variables.

    New England Journal of Medicine
  6. 2017Modern check

    287 children, no relationship to behavior or sleep

    Total sugar consumption in children aged 8 to 12 was not related to behavioral problems or sleep problems.

    International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition

The experiment that explains it

So why does everyone see it anyway?

In 1994, researchers recruited 35 boys aged 5 to 7 whose mothers described them as sugar-sensitive. All of them got an aspartame placebo. Not one received sugar. The only variable was what their mothers were told.

Randomized, double-blind n = 35 boys, ages 5 to 7
Mothers told: “sugar”
Child actually received
Aspartame placebo
Rating of hyperactivity
Significantly higher
Mother’s behavior
More controlling, more criticism
Mothers told: “placebo”
Child actually received
Aspartame placebo
Rating of hyperactivity
Baseline
Mother’s behavior
Baseline
Both groups of children got exactly the same thing. The only measured difference was in the mothers.

The sugar rush is real. It is happening in the person watching.

What is going on instead

Sugar and excitement arrive at the same parties.

Birthdays. Halloween. Christmas morning. The last day of school.

Children are wound up at these events, and these events serve cake. The two show up together, so one gets blamed for the other. Take away the presents, the other kids and the broken bedtime, hand a child sugar in a quiet room, and the behavior does not follow. The occasion was doing the work.

None of this makes sugar good for children. There are real reasons to limit it: teeth, weight, and what it crowds out of a diet. Hyperactivity is not one of them.

Read the sources

Check the research yourself.

  1. Sugar: Does it Really Cause Hyperactivity? Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

    Traces the myth back to a single study from the mid 1970s.

  2. Does sugar really make kids hyper? Australian Academy of Science

    No substantial evidence that sugar or artificial sweeteners cause hyperactivity in children.

  3. Busting the Sugar-Hyperactivity Myth WebMD

    Most of the medical industry maintains there is no known link between sugar and hyperactivity.

  4. True or False: Eating Sugar Tends to Make Children Hyperactive Winchester Hospital

    Numerous studies have examined the claim. None found a connection.

  5. Medical myths: Does sugar make children hyperactive? Medical News Today

    Walks through the JAMA meta-analysis, the NEJM diet trial and the 1994 expectancy study.

  6. Mythbusters: Does Sugar Really Make Children Hyper? Yale Scientific Magazine

    Traces the myth to the 1973 Feingold diet and the 1982 NIH statement.