The Relationship between Sugar and Behavior in Children

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The effect of sugar intake on children's behavior is a hotly debated topic in pediatrics. Parents and educators often contend that sugar and other carbohydrate ingestion can dramatically impact children's behavior, particularly their activity levels. Physicians, on the other hand, have looked at controlled studies of sugar intake and have not found hypoglycemia or other blood sugar abnormalities in the children who are consuming large amounts of sugar.

An interesting article appears in the February 1995 edition of the Journal of Pediatrics. In contrast with other research teams, William Tamborlane, M.D., et al, of Yale University report a more pronounced response to a glucose load in children than in adults.

It is commonly acknowledged that as blood glucose levels fall, there is a compensatory release of adrenaline. When the blood glucose level falls below normal, the resulting situation is called hypoglycemia. Signs and symptoms that accompany this include shakiness, sweating, and altered thinking and behavior.

Tamborlane and his colleagues demonstrated that this adrenaline release occurs at higher glucose levels in children than it does in adults. In children it occurs at a blood sugar level that would not be considered hypoglycemic. The peak of this adrenaline surge comes about four hours after eating. The authors reason that the problem is not sugar, per se, but highly refined sugars and carbohydrates, which enter the bloodstream quickly and produce more rapid fluctuations in blood glucose levels.

A recent study supports the idea that a breakfast with a lower sugar load may improve short-term memory and attention span at school (Physiol Behav, 2007; 92: 717-24). Giving your child a breakfast which contains fiber (oatmeal, shredded wheat, berries, bananas, whole-grain pancakes, etc.) instead of loads of refined sugar should keep adrenaline levels more constant and make the school day a more wondrous and productive experience. Packing her/his lunch box with delicious fiber-containing treats (whole-grain breads, peaches, grapes, a myriad of other fresh fruits, etc.) may turn afternoons at home into a delight.

Reviewed By: 
Khanh-Van Le-Bucklin M.D. & Liat Simkhay Snyder M.D.
2.57143
 
 
 
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Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2010-07-14 09:21.

sugar and hyperactivity

This is hard to interpret. Why is there hypoglycemia if someone eats a lot of sugar? Doesn't hypo- mean UNDER amount rather than too much? So why would eating sugar give you too low blood sugar? If it is hypoglycemia that releases adrenaline, it sounds like the remedy is eating sugar! I have a PHD and I can't understand this entry, so I think it needs clarification.

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Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 2010-08-06 14:26.

response to anonymous

Sugar causes hypoglycemia because it shoots sugar up and then the sugar leves crash, which is the "hypo" part. The body tries to compensate by releasing adrenaline, which can then cause hyperactivity. The article is saying this happens to everyone (haven't you had a sugar crash, where you feel tired a few hours after eating an abnormal amount of sugar? Something similar happens with caffeine) but is accelerated or exaggerated in children.

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Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 2011-03-03 21:15.

further clarification on hypoglacymia and another question

it is not just about adrenaline - when you intake accessive sugar your body produces extra insulin to break it down. If there's too much insulin in your system your sugar drops to below norm level, hence the term HYPOglycemia. So yes, a quick fix to that is eating more sugar, which should be done to save a life of a person in critical condition, but that won't fix the systemic overproduction of insulin. There is usually an underlying malfunction in the system that causes insulin hyperfunction, which should be diagnosed and treated. Hope this helps. I got to this site becasue i was seeking information on behavioral effects of low sugar in children. I suspect low sugar is the cause of my 6 y.o. son's outbursts of anger, rage and overall personality change when he's hungry. So i wanted to ask the medical professionals who may be reading this or the parents of kids with similar behavior (and confirmed diagnosis) - what do you think of my hypothesis. My son was always quirky and what may be labeled as a "difficult" child. Loses control easily over seemingly insignificant things. Even though he grew out of most of his quirky patterns by now ( while developing fewer new ones), i see a strong correlation between hunger and his rage peaks. As soon as i manage to feed him ( which has never been easy as he's extremely picky), he turns into a completely different person - immediately calms down, and becomes a sweet, loving boy. He suffers a lot from this, as he cannot control himself during the angry/hungry phases, not to mention that they've been making the life of his caregivers a living hell. Can anyone help by providing any relevent information? We asked our pediatrician if low sugar can be a culprit, but she said "good luck getting him tested". I see her point - he wouldn't let anybody with a needle near him. And blood sugar monitoring should be done several times a day for a period of time, so that's quite impossible in our situation. Is there anything else we can do to diagnose and treat this?

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Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 2011-04-05 19:55.

Hypoglycemia and child behaviour.

I totally agree with your hypothesis, my 4 and 6 year old boys are exactly the same. This morning whilst dropping my 4 year old son at preschool i had a revelation about his behaviour and finally realised the behaviour has a definite peak and trough pattern. He tends to become really hyperactive, talks non stop, disruptive right on lunch time and again at about 4pm which happens to be just before a meal. My 6 year old was still doing this in kindergarten last year and also falling alseep in class, but now seems to be growing out of this behaviour. I think I am feeding them fairly healthy food, but now wondering if I should be doing more. I did suggest to the child care worker today to ensure 4 year old does eat morning tea which is usually fruit but this doesn't always seem to give them enough sugar to boost the blood sugar. Just wondering if anyone else have thoughts on this, should I be consulting my GP or should I just encourage food grazing so they are eating small portions more frequently which is an eating habit i myself have. I really feel this is an important issue which is being over looked in our children which may impact how and when we feed our kids, not just what we feed them. Any thoughts?