Welcome to Toddlers Made Easy, where there's no fluff, just practical, research-based, 15 minutes or less parenting strategies. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Dr. Catherine, a pediatrician with more than 33 years of experience. I'm the author of two parenting books, the founder of Healthiest Baby, and the mother of four amazing adult kids. And let's not forget Smudge, my great big golden doodle. Welcome back to Toddlers Made Easy. In follow-up from the last episode, which is about hyperactive or high-energy kids, if you haven't listened to it, I'd suggest you listen to it. You don't have to listen to it before this episode, but I'd go back and listen to it at another time. But today we're going to focus on are sugar highs making your toddler hyper? And I had so many DMs after the last episode that I felt it was needed to have a little further talk on the topic. So a lot of parents think their kids get hyper because they eat too much sugar. However, according to research, this really is a myth. Now, I want to tell you a little bit about the background and how it came to be so you understand how this is such a common thought. So the idea really gained traction around 1975, around the release of a Dr. Ben Feingold's book, Why Your Child is Hyperactive. In his book, Dr. Feingold tells the story of a young boy who could be seen as the initial example of linking sugar to hyperactivity. He described how this energetic blonde boy had a love for soft drinks and candy and cake, which really is not that uncommon, like a lot of other kids. However, he also noted that the boy would become exceptionally overexcited after events like birthday parties or family holiday gatherings. So back in the 1970s, when medications like Ritalin started being used for ADHD, many parents were worried about the side effects of these drugs. And the idea that they could potentially manage their kids' hyperactivity just by cutting out sugar was very appealing, as you can imagine. So there were only a few studies back then when this idea came to fruition, and there were only a few studies that actually supported this viewpoint. They said that eating a lot of sugar could make the body produce more insulin, which in turn would lead to a boost in adrenaline and cause hyperactive behavior. However, the evidence from these studies wasn't very strong, and pretty soon other scientists began to doubt the findings. So in 1994, a very detailed study was carried out, and it answered the question about sugar and hyperactivity. It was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, and researchers tested average preschoolers and those whom parents thought their kids were sensitive to sugar. The twist was that nobody knew, not the kids, not the parents, not the research team, nobody knew who was eating sugar and who wasn't. So the researchers even checked urine samples to make sure that the diets were being followed correctly. The children were evaluated on nine different cognitive and behavioral aspects, and they were observed every five seconds. So guess what the results were? The study found no link between sugar and changes in kids' behavior or brain function. An editorial accompanying the study was pretty straightforward stating sugar doesn't turn a normally attentive child into a hyperactive one. A year later, a comprehensive review of all the published studies on the topic came to the same conclusion. So despite being debunked, the idea of sugar high continues to exist, but further research keeps showing that sugar it doesn't really change how children behave. Now, if we look at this from a big-hearted perspective, I suspect many kids feel great when they've had a sweet snack, and as you know, kids behave how they feel. So maybe it makes sense that their behavior may just be more exciting because they're feeling great. And that's why so many people believe, despite scientific proof, that their kids get a sugar high. Regardless, it's still a good idea to limit sugar in your child's diet. While it might not stop hyperactivity, reducing sugar can still protect your kids from obesity, heart disease, and so many other health problems. So that's just the quick tidbit for today. I want to thank you for listening in. I'm sure some of you will agree and others disagree with today's findings, and I'd love to hear your thoughts. Please send me a DM over on Instagram. Have a great week, and I'll see you next week.