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Can sugar consumption make you hyperactive?

2025-11-08 09:41:00, Shëndeti CNA

It’s a warning passed down through generations: if you give a child too many sweets, they’ll “bounce off the walls.” But is there any scientific evidence that sugar makes us thirstier? Not yet, says Amanda Avery, an associate professor in nutrition and dietetics at the University of Nottingham.

She says there are theories linking sugar to behavioral changes. One stems from the way sugar activates the body's reward system, causing a burst of dopamine - the neurotransmitter that "makes you feel good".

"Increases in dopamine levels can be linked to changes in behavior, which can include periods of hyperactivity," says Avery.

Another theory focuses on how eating too much sugar can cause blood glucose levels to spike and then drop rapidly, known as reactive hypoglycemia. This can cause behavioral changes, some of which can be interpreted as hyperactivity.

Hyperactivity is subjective: what one parent might call hyperactive, another might see as simply energetic.

However, there is little evidence to support these theories. Not least because hyperactivity, outside of its clinical context as a symptom of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), is subjective: “What one parent might call hyperactive, another might simply see as energetic.”

Research so far has found only limited links between sugar consumption and hyperactive behavior, mostly in children already diagnosed with ADHD. The strongest links appear with sweetened beverages that contain seven or eight teaspoons of sugar per serving, which also contain additives and caffeine, making it difficult to isolate sugar as the culprit. Some studies in animals, but not in humans, have shown that those who were fed high-sugar diets early in life were more likely to show hyperactivity later in life.

So does sugar make us hyperactive? So far, it hasn't been proven that it does. However, says Avery, most of us eat more sugar than is healthy and we should try to reduce our consumption./ CNA, translated from "The Guardian"