Pediatric research has repeatedly found that sugar does not cause hyperactivity, yet one experiment showed that mothers told their children had eaten a lot of sugar rated those children as significantly more hyperactive, even though every child had actually received a placebo.
Once Halloween passes, sugar gets blamed again for children running wild. But a 1995 meta-analysis of 23 studies concluded that sugar does not affect children's behaviour or cognitive performance.
The sharpest part is another experiment: some mothers were told their children had just eaten a large dose of sugar, when in fact all the children had received a placebo. Those mothers still rated their children as significantly more hyperactive. The study authors said this expectancy effect was stronger for 'cognitively rigid mothers.'
So sugar is not to blame. We just want an explanation badly enough to believe we can control the behaviour.
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