Kasia the Expert

The other day my daughter played with a couple of neighborhood kids while their mom and I shared some ideas about kids and snacking. My neighbor and I enjoy offering a variety of fruits, veggies, and other well balanced snacks to our kids we both agreed that it's hard to find a child who doesn't like snacks with the sweet taste of sugar. As I watched my daughter sipping her soft drink and excitedly running around with her friends I wondered about sugars and what effect, if any, they had on children's behavior.

As a nutritionist, I know that sugar and hyperactivity has no basis in scientific literature. In my mind I can picture any type of sugar (or starch for that matter) being broken down into its basic building block of glucose, which the body can use for energy. If anything science tells us that carbohydrates like sugars and starches make us relaxed. So why am I seeing these kids run around like busy bees with their soft drinks? I had to refresh my memory...

I did some research and found The International Food Information Council Foundation (IFIC) Review of Sugars, Mental Performance and Behavior reports that "Contrary to popular belief, sucrose does not cause aggressive or disruptive behavior in children, nor does it negatively affect mental performance". Interestingly, IFIC Review includes findings of numerous, well controlled studies and points out that the studies not only included normal behaved children but also kids diagnosed with hyperactivity or attention deficit disorder.

Rest assured, next time the neighorhood kids seem to run endlessly after having some sweetened snacks, it might be their way of just enjoying time spend with friends.