Holiday health myths
December 22nd, 2008
I always thought that kids who consume sugary drinks become hyperactive, but apparently I was wrong. Check out this article from cnn.com, it has some interesting health myths that you may find surprising:
Myth: Sugar makes kids hyperactive
Release the candy canes! In at least 12 placebo-controlled studies, children who were given different amounts of sugar reacted no differently than those who had none, report Vreeman and Carroll. Even research looking at kids with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or those who were considered sensitive to sugar found no evidence of behavioral change.
Interestingly, in one study when parents thought their children had been given a sugary drink (it was actually sugar free), they perceived their behavior as more hyperactive.
Myth: Eating at night makes you fat
Holiday festivities provide people with many opportunities to indulge in large meals and lots of desserts at all times of the day. But the commonly held belief that eating before bed causes more weight gain than eating at other times of the day isn’t supported by research. Several studies promote the weight-control benefits of eating breakfast and eating meals at consistent times, but that’s only because they help people limit their overall intake of daily calories, the study authors report.
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