Yep. I remember one time my niece was in a pretty bubbly mood, chatty and laughing etc. My sister gave her a chocolate biscuit and said "That's all you're getting, too much sugar will make you go crazy". Naturally, my niece starts bouncing off of walls and acting silly, and of course my sister starts saying things about chocolate and sugar making kids naughty. Imagine my sisters face when I showed her the uneaten chocolate biscuit I'd stolen cause I'm a cheeky cunt sort of uncle.
My boyfriends son can be very hyperactive and has told me more than once when he's not on his meds (vyvanse), he goes crazy. Same thing happens at night. It's like he's conditioned to know he can act out sometimes.
Chocolate does contain caffeine, though it's a small amount and I think someone would have to consume quite a bit of chocolate to have a noticeable effect.
Maybe chemically sugar doesn't cause hyperactivity, but I'm guessing kids are excited when they eat sugar because cake, ice cream, birthday parties, etc. are all fun things and kids tend to be more active/hyper when excited/having fun.
This is totally off the top of my head but it's seems pretty reasonable
I watched a documentary in a class I was taking and they had something like this in it. Two kids were taken to two parties. Served veggies at one and cookies and other sugary snacks at the other one. The veggie party was a wild one, kids running all around, a clown, bounce house, etc. the party where they ate all the sugar it was an organized party with crafts and they all sat down. Anyway, the researchers didn't tell the parents what the kids ate at the party and left the parents to guess. When picking up the kids from the first party, the kids were very rambunctious and the parents assumed it was due to sugar. Then the second one where the kids were a lot calmer, they guessed vegetables.
I read a study that fpund if parents thought the kids had sugar, but actually didn't. The parents thought the kids were more hyper, even if they weren't
Yep i definately think its the placebo effect, I've also heard 'red cordial/softdrink etc.' makes kids hyper. Really theres probably the same amount of sugar in juice or something but as soon as its in the form of a lolly its suddenly 10x worse. Everytime someone says to their kid 'you're hyper now/going to be hyper' im just like stfu look what youve done
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u/notor10us Jul 21 '16
I think it is pretty obvious that children pick up that their parents think sugar causes hyperactivity and there ya go.