Does sugar make kids hyper? | Live Science

September 17, 2020September 16, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

If a child eats cotton candy, a chocolate bar or any other kind of sugary treat, will a hyperactive frenzy follow? While some parents may swear that the answer is “yes,” research shows that it’s just not true.

Yes, that’s right. “Sugar does not appear to affect behavior in children,” said Dr. Mark Wolraich, chief of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Oklahoma University Health Sciences Center, who researched sugar’s effect on children in the 1990s.

Instead, parent’s expectations of so-called “sugar highs” appear to color the way they view their children’s behavior, Wolraich said. It’s easy to see why parents make the link: Sugar is often the main attraction at birthday parties, on Halloween and other occasions when children are likely to bounce off the walls. But all that energy is due to kids being excited, not from the sugar in their systems, he said. [Is Sugar Bad for You?]

Exercise Can’t Save Us: Our Sugar Intake Is The Real Culprit, Say Experts | Forbes

November 16, 2018November 15, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In a fascinating and scorching editorial in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, three authors argue that the myth that exercise is the key to weight loss – and to health – is erroneous and pervasive, and that it must end. The evidence that diet matters more than exercise is now overwhelming, they write, and has got to be heeded: We can exercise to the moon and back but still be fat for all the sugar and carbs we consume. And perhaps even more jarring is that we can be a normal weight and exercise, and still be unhealthy if we’re eating poorly. So, they say, we need a basic reboot of our understanding of health, which has to involve the food industry’s powerful PR “machinery,” since that was part of the problem to begin with.

We Quit Sugar for 10 Days and This Is What Happened | NBC News

April 25, 2017April 24, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

I’ve never had the biggest sweet tooth, so when I heard that our next challenge for “We Tried It” was to give up added sugar for ten days, I thought it would be a piece of cake (ahem).

Much to my surprise, I was very wrong. I knew that unhealthy foods such as cupcakes, cookies and soda were filled with sugar — but I never realized that hidden sugars were lurking in so many other foods that I consume on a daily basis, until I started this challenge.

I did the challenge with two of my co-workers, Kyle and Geraldine. The rules were simple: avoid added sugar, read all food labels and only eat natural sugar, i.e. the kind you find in fruits and veggies, for 10 days.

Why Fructose-Laden Drinks May Leave You Wanting More | Live Science

May 6, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The type of sugar in your drink may affect how much food you want to eat, according to a new study. Researchers found that people wanted to eat more high-calorie foods when they had a drink containing fructose, compared with when their drink contained glucose.

In the study, 24 people were given drinks sweetened with 75 grams of fructose on one day, and the same amount of glucose in a drink on another day. The researchers also showed the people images of high-calorie foods that included candy, cookies, pizza and burgers, and asked the participants to rate how hungry they were and how much they wanted to eat each food.

After consuming fructose, the participants reported feeling hungrier and expressed a greater desire to eat the foods pictured than when they consumed glucose.