It\u2019s a warning passed down the generations: give a child too many sweets and they\u2019ll be bouncing off the walls. But is there any scientific proof that sugar sends us into overdrive? Not yet, says Amanda Avery, an associate professor in nutrition and dietetics at the University of Nottingham.<\/p>\n
She says there are theories linking sugar to behavioural changes. One stems from how sugar activates the body\u2019s reward system, triggering a\u00a0burst of dopamine \u2013 the \u201cfeelgood\u201d neurotransmitter. \u201cIncreases in dopamine levels can be linked to behavioural changes, which can include periods of hyperactivity,\u201d says\u00a0Avery.<\/p>\n
Another theory focuses on how eating lots of sugar can cause blood glucose levels to spike and then drop quickly, which is known as reactive hypoglycaemia. This can cause behavioural changes, some of which could be interpreted as hyperactivity.<\/p>\n
Hyperactivity is subjective: what one parent might call hyperactive, another might just see as energetic<\/p>\n
There\u2019s little evidence to prove these theories though. Not least because hyperactivity \u2013 outside its clinical context as a symptom of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) \u2013 is subjective: \u201cWhat one parent might call hyperactive, another might just see as energetic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Research<\/a> has so far found only limited links<\/a> between sugar intake and hyperactive behaviour, mostly among children already diagnosed with ADHD. The strongest links appear with sweetened drinks containing seven or eight teaspoons of sugar in one serving, which also contain additives and caffeine, making it hard to isolate sugar as the culprit. Some studies on animals \u2013 but not humans \u2013 have shown that those fed high-sugar diets<\/a> early in life were more likely to show hyperactivity later on.<\/p>\n So, does sugar make us hyper? So far, it hasn\u2019t been proved to. Still, Avery says, most of us eat more sugar than is healthy and we should try to cut back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a warning passed down the generations: give a child too many sweets and they\u2019ll be bouncing off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,85,46,543],"class_list":{"0":"post-112799","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-nutrition"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}