Comments on: The Myth of the “Sugar High”

By: carolyn

carolyn — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 08:52:25 +0000

I was a war baby and we were glad of sugar…we had sugar sandwiches for tea sometimes, when there was nothing else.. My grandson is a victim of this so called ’sugar rush’ what a load of old condswallup that is … My children were never badly behaved because of sugar…they just mis behaved as perfectly balanced ‘boys’ but I never blamed it on their sugar intake…it was just normal….generally they were very well behaved and were NEVER ‘hyper’…

By: Julie

Julie — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 03:40:49 +0000

Hm…I wonder if high in this context really should be “rush.” The study is really just talking about behavior.

By: Angeline

Angeline — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 02:46:10 +0000

I don’t want to be a party pooper, but it isn’t any mystery that a “sugar high” is a sudden spike in glucose that causes a “sugar crash” which is a sudden huge dump of insulin to compensate for the imbalance. An entire dieting industry – The Zone, Atkins – is based on that glucose/insulin relationship. I have no doubt that the study says there’s no such thing as a “sugar high”, but I would look a little closer at what criteria they used to measure it, what kind of and how much sugar they administered, who sponsored the study, as well as a number of other things including their definition of “sugar high”. This is one study among an enormous body of evidence to the contrary — including type II diabetes research, immune system response to glucose research… I’m not so sure.

By: RationalMoms.com « FreeThought Fort Wayne

RationalMoms.com « FreeThought Fort Wayne — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 19:29:10 +0000

[...] The Myth of the “Sugar High” A couple of my friends [informed] me that there is no such thing as a “sugar high”. [...]

By: Ingrid

Ingrid — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:26:09 +0000

Interesting post. I wasn’t aware of the study. So much for that excuse for bad behavior of children. Too bad they didn’ t have this info when the guy who shot Harey Milk used the “Twinkie Defense”!

By: JessieMarion

JessieMarion — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:52:04 +0000

Ah.. the sugar party. I call them “Cookie Exchange” but I don’t think they are what is typically thought of as a cookie exchange. The second Sunday of every month we all bake a batch of whatever cookie/pie/confection we like and bring it over to my house. (Sometimes we have an optional theme like “Pie” or “Halloween” but it’s usually very loose.) Everyone prints out the recipe, or emails it to me for me to print out. We all get a physical or digital copy of the recipe and most importantly we sit around and EAT some of everything. The eating only takes a few minutes but we end up chatting for hours. When we it’s time to go, we divide up whatever goodies remain and take them home to our significant others. It’s a good time!

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:33:37 +0000

Thanks for the post! It reminds me of the time we were at a 1st birthday party and watched in gleeful anticipation as the birthday girl got to dig into her first ever sugar-infused item: birthday cake. We were giggling and excited, ready for her to freak out or get all happy or gobble it up or something. What a disappointment! She took a few bites, didn’t seem to think anything of it one way or another, and wanted her mom to pick her up.
I think the comparison with alcohol is apt. Sugar comes with a lot of social expectations, and even if it’s not a birthday party it might be a “special treat” or “fun to share with mommy” or whatever – we probably don’t give sugar stuff to our kids without cuing them to react to it somehow.
Anyway – I want to know about your sugar parties! Do you guys all just make something and bring it over, like a dessert potluck? Sugar is my only remaining vice, and I like the idea of cultivating it.

By: chanson

chanson — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:12:11 +0000

My two boys are very rowdy and active, but they don’t really have that much of a sweet tooth, so I don’t have much personal experience with this question. But before reading this article, I’d assumed that the “sugar high” was fact — I didn’t even realize it was scientifically in question!

By: Diane

Diane — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:28:05 +0000

Oh for heavens sake. Why is it so hard to accept that sugar doesn’t cause a sugar high? Of course, too much of any one thing is not good for anyone–a diet of sugar isn’t healthy, anymore than a diet of nothing but broccoli would be. My mother in law thinks that any amount of alcohol makes her drunk, so if she thinks she’s drinking something alcoholic, she immediately starts acting drunk, even if her drink is virgin. Kids whose parents think they are “sugar sensitive” fulfill those expectations very nicely. Unless one is actually allergic to something (meaning needs an epipen), I think being relaxed about food makes everyone happier. So chill out, enjoy your meals, and enjoy your parties.

By: Jane Hersey

Jane Hersey — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 04:36:59 +0000

Well, despite what a particular study might conclude, a mother’s observations should be given more respect. There are a lot of problems inherent in this issue. For example:
*Different people have different tolerances to sugar and to other foods.
*A person’s ability to handle sugar can depend on whether they have just finished a good meal or if they eat in on an empty stomach. (The same is true for alcohol and caffeine.)
*Very few processed foods now actually use “sugar” — they are much more likely to use corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup.
*If corn sweeteners are found in most candies, and a study uses table sugar, they are looking at two different things.
*Most people confuse “sugar” and “candy” but they are entirely different things. Candy contains large amounts of sweeteners, but many candies also contain synthetic dyes, artificial flavors, and a variety of other chemicals that have been found to trigger hyper behaviors in most children.
*When people remove “sugar” from a child’s diet and find that he calms down, chances are they have actually removed highly sugared cereals, soft drinks, etc., all of which are also loaded with synthetic chemical additives.
*There is now a great deal of research to show that chemical additives such as food dyes can trigger a wide range of behavior and learning problems. See http://www.diet-studies.com.
*Most of the dyes used in our food today are made from petroleum, and the majority of them start out in petroleum refineries in China. What’s more our Food and Drug Administration allows them to contain residues of dangerous impurities like lead, mercury and arsenic.
*While artificial food dyes have been used for many years, their use has increased drastically. The use of these dyes in food has increased 500% between 1955 and 2005!
The good news is that nobody has to eat petroleum! There are plenty of favorite foods available without harmful additives and natural dyes can be used to make food colorful and appealing. The non-profit Feingold Association of the US shows families how to find these foods. See http://www.feingold.org for lots of information on how to make simple changes in your food that can bring about a big difference.
So, Mom, dust off your self-respect. When it comes to your kid, YOU are the expert. There are lots of studies and they show lots of different things. Generally, the studies showing that sugar has no down side have been funded by….guess who! The Sugar Association! Gee, do you think they might have a stake in the outcome? We would all like to believe that scientific inquiry is not contaminated with special interested and doctored results. Some are, but many are not. We would all like to believe in Santa Claus too!