The point of this post is not to say that sugar doesn’t give you energy but rather to show you that the idea of how the body uses energy was misconstrued.
POV: You’re 10 years old and your mom takes away your Halloween candy because she fears you’ll become The Flash. You start to grieve the loss of your Starbursts, KitKats, and Fuzzy Peaches as she places your bag of candy on the top shelf of the pantry and tells you that you’ll see your candy again “after dinner”. You scream. You cry. You pout. You promise her that you’ll be good, and that you won’t be hyper. But she remains firm and says: “It’s for your own good. You’ll get a sugar rush.” Much to your devastation.
You’ve probably grown up thinking that sugar can give you a ‘rush’ or make you more hyperactive. I know I did. In fact, even before I started researching this topic, I went in thinking I’d find sources that would affirm this belief. Imagine my surprise seeing the following headlines: “Busting the Sugar-Hyperactivity Myth” and “Does Sugar Really Make Children Hyper?” and finally, the gut-wrenching “There’s No Such Thing as a Sugar Rush”.
Here’s what I learned:
We have known that sugar rushes are a myth for some time now. Some experiments have been done to determine if sugar rushes are real: Wolraich et al (1994) found that there was no significant differences in behaviour between two groups of sugar-sensitive children that were put on diets high in sucrose, aspartame (sweetener), or saccharin (placebo). Wolraich et al (1995) conducted a meta-analysis on 16 studies that were high quality that investigated the effect of sugar on the behaviour of children and concluded that sugar does not have an effect. The experiments were highly controlled by the use of known amounts of sugar, a placebo, and double-blind experimental design to prevent bias during data collection and data analysis. This looks good for the argument against sugar rushes.
There are other reasons why someone might perceive that sugar gives them a rush of energy. Sometimes it’s the experience of eating sugary foods with others that primes someone for hyperactivity, the confirmation bias of parents who believe that sugar does lead to hyperactivity, or that perhaps more hyperactive individuals tend to eat more sugar. Thankfully, we have researchers who have investigated this to tease out the truth.
The point of this post is not to say that sugar doesn’t give you energy (because it does) but rather to show you that the idea of how the body uses energy was misconstrued and this allowed the sugar rush theory to be born. Your body uses sugar for energy, but it would rather store it and use it for later when you need it (e.g. in situations where food/energy is not readily available) not when you’re trying to impress your friends at a birthday party with your Flash impersonation after eating cake. Also, while sugar has been shown to not affect behaviour in this way (i.e. making one more hyperactive) sugar can affect mood and behavior, but it tends to have debilitating effects rather than making one energetic (Mantantzis et al, 2019). This has been dubbed the “sugar crash”.
Next time someone swats a sugary treat from your hands claiming that you’ll get a ‘sugar rush’ you can just coolly say: “cite your source?”
References (CSE)
Mantantzis K, Schlaghecken F, Sünram-Lea SI, Maylor EA. Sugar rush or sugar crash? A meta-analysis of carbohydrate effects on mood. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. 2019;101:45–67. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.03.016
Wolraich ML, Lindgren SD, Stumbo PJ, Stegink LD, Appelbaum MI, Kiritsy MC. Effects of diets high in sucrose or aspartame on the behavior and cognitive performance of children. New England Journal of Medicine. 1994;330(5):301– 307. doi:10.1056/nejm199402033300501
Wolraich ML. The effect of sugar on behavior or cognition in children. JAMA. 1995;274(20):1617. doi:10.1001/jama.1995.03530200053037