Long before you’re fretting over whether your kids are dabbling in drugs at some high school party, you’ve most likely seen them high on sugar — from cakes at birthday parties, Halloween candy, Christmas cookies, the list goes on and on. And if your kids overdo it (as kids are wont to do), you’ve no doubt braced yourself for their transformation into Tasmanian devils — tearing through the house, jumping on couches, knocking down furniture … pure chaos. And clearly the sugar is to blame.
Yet scientists beg to differ, claiming that sugar isn’t the culprit. “Plenty of research has been done proving that the whole ‘sugar high’ thing is a myth,” says Meena Chintapalli, MD, a pediatrician in San Antonio, Texas, at A Thru Z Pediatrics. “Some studies have linked high sugar intake to ADHD; however, it has never been definitively proven.”