Just this week on Good Morning America they were talking about a study that seems to indicate that zero calorie sweeteners may contribute to weight gain. The theory is that eating something sweet (whether sugar or a substitute) makes the body think it’s taking in calories “and certain physiological responses kick in.”
The study was done on rats so take it as you may. While this doesn’t directly support the “sugar high” theory, it would bring into question the methods used in the JAMA studies cited by Cecil. In other words, the kids in the sugar group would be act the same as those in the artifical sweetner group because all the kids’ bodies were reacting to consuming something sweet.
And while millions of anecdotes may not prove anything, I can certainly say for myself that I feel differently after consuming a food or drink high in sugar. I don’t eat sweets or drink soda very often so maybe the effect is more noticable for me.
bufftabby, you’re not a 5 year old so I doubt hyperactivity would be the result of your high.
Many parents want their children to be as smart as possible. What they should actually be doing is feeding them energy drinks. The combination of caffeine and glucose provides cognitive benefits not found in either alone.
Warning anecdotish information, read with extreme caution
I have a friend whose small, about two years younger than me (these frist two are not correlated, she’s even small for her age) and incredibly “hyperactive” when exposed to sugar.
I put hyperactive in quotes because she only is really hyper if someone actively makes a statement. The key phrase is along the lines of (jokingly) “Oh shit! <name> had sugar, hit the deck!” It’ll also occus if she’s actively scannign what she’s eating and realizes its sugary. If shes not paying attention you don’t really see a change (unless of course it’s something like chocolate or certain sodas that have caffeine), which leads us (including her) that its really the power of SUGGESTION rather than the power of SUGAR making her crazy.
Now does this nescessarily correspond to kids, or even every person without a disorder? No. Is it data? yes. Is it reliable? Depends on your definition of “reliable”.
Well. There’s a lot of questions this article raises.
First, why are psychologists reporting on a study involving diet and metabolism?
Secondly- and I suspect the real issue here- if the diet drinks are zero calories, where does the ‘fat’ come from? Were the rats fed (and did they consume) identical diets? How is it possible that “consuming a food sweetened with no-calorie saccharin can lead to greater body-weight gain and adiposity than would consuming the same food sweetened with a high-calorie sugar”?
Doesn’t this somehow mean the rat’s bodies were willing themselves to violate basic laws of thermodynamics? This has nothing to do w/metabolism- they replaced a zero-calorie food w/a high-calorie substitute. You cannot create something out of nothing.
How about going on a ‘diet soda only’ diet for a week- let’s see who gains weight in the process? I’m willing to give it a try…of course, I won’t end up on some idiotic morning show, will I?
I have taken electrolyte salts in water and I can say it has worked as well or better then sugar sports drinks, but tastes bad. I think the sugar in those drinks are to help the taste much more then energy requirements, as most people have great amounts of stored energy in fat, when in such intense workout the body switches to this fuel over glucose, so that energy from the drinks is not really needed.
