Sugar makes children hyperactive—and other medical myths

It's an uncomfortable feeling: you're loudly proclaiming a "scientific fact" and are suddenly assailed by a creeping sense of doubt. Did you learn it in science class, or was it just something your grandmother used to say? At least now we have Wikipedia if we want to check.

A huge number of myths and superstitions seem to collect around health and medicine. Everyone knows that eating late at night makes you fat, right? We're sure that sugar makes kids hyperactive, aren't we? And surely it's important to wear a hat in winter, since we lose most heat through our heads? Researchers from Indianapolis have now revealed that none of these beliefs are true.

One study did find that overweight women tended to eat later in the day. But they were also eating more overall, which is what really made the difference. Studies have also shown that your patterns of energy usage, which vary during the day and at night, aren't affected by the timing of meals.

More than a dozen good-quality studies have failed to find any link between sugar in children's diets and hyperactive behavior. So, why do parents associate sugar with hyperactivity? In one study, parents were told that their children had been given sugary drinks, and went on to rate their children as hyperactive. What they didn't know was that their children had really been given a sugar-free drink. The difference was in parents' minds.

The belief that most heat is lost through the head is particularly widespread. Even the U.S. Army field manual tells soldiers that they lose up to 45 percent of their body heat through their heads. This misconception probably comes from an experiment that measured heat loss in people wearing arctic survival suits, but no hats. Naturally, they lost most heat through their heads. But any uncovered part of your body loses heat at the same rate, so if you're wearing a bathing suit, the heat loss through your head is about 10 percent.

If we really lost 45 percent of our body heat through our heads, going without a hat would feel just as cold as going out without wearing pants.

What you need to know. It's worth checking whether popular medical "facts" are actually true. It's always better to think for yourself; after all, it's not as if we only use 10 percent of our brains. Is it?

—Philip Wilson, patient editor, BMJ Group

ConsumerReportsHealth.org has partnered with The BMJ Group to monitor the latest medical research and assess the evidence to help you decide which news you should use.

Read more on common myths about sleep, hair loss, acne, and alternative therapies.

Comments

[eric Eric]

I have to agree with the first poster. So much credibility is given to
scientific studies, but CR itself points out how many such studies are
flawed by not taking all factors into account.

My concern is with this statement: "Studies have also shown that your
patterns of energy usage, which vary during the day and at night, aren't
affected by the timing of meals." That is true, but doesn't have
anything to do with a person getting fat b/c they eat a lot at night.

Any bodybuilder knows that his body needs certain kinds of food before
and after a workout so that his body has the right types of proteins,
carbs, etc to get the results he is looking for. He also knows that
having protein at night provides an energy supply that his body can use
so that his body won't go into his muscles for supply. If a person eats
high calories snacks before they go to bed, there is no activity to
convert those sugars into used energy, so it goes into stored energy -
thus fat.

[Maralissa]

This study is inherently flawed. Why? Because children may be react similarly to sugar-free sweeteners as they do to sugar. For the study to be accurate, the children must be given drinks that are already known to not produce hyperactive activity in each individual child.

Also, allergies to a particular food may produce hyperactive symptoms in a person. How did the study access that the child was not allergic to anything in the drink that was offered to them?

Most of these studies are far from scientific when you begin to look at the ways and means that were used to conduct them.

Pleaes offer more substantial exploration into your references before you put ideas in peoples' minds.

Maralissa