I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW. I know that’s what people have “proven” in labs.
But if that’s true, then what about this info on ADULTS and sugar?
I just don’t buy it.
Oh hell no. I just clicked on that article. No f’n way. My kids – I – feel and behave quite differently after a good, balanced breakfast (peanut butter on whole wheat bread is tops, in my book) versus a handful of crap (hey, I’m human). Some kids are sensitive to additives like coloring in medicines, too.
I’d love to know HOW they do those studies. You couldn’t replicate the effects in a lab - every person who’s ever raised a small child KNOWS that they behave differently with daycare workers and relatives versus at home. Unless they used hidden cameras in the home setting and nothing else, I don’t believe it.
Parties wind them up, yes, but so do certain foods. And the form matters, too - ice cream is particularly pernicious with mine, for some reason. Chocolate is usually OK though, I’m thinking the high fat content balances some of the sugar effect.
In terms of quantifiable measures of sugar content, glycemic index is the one that makes the most sense. On this scale, graham crackers are about 50% higher than ice cream (74 vs. 50 according to this source).
I won’t try to dispute the conclusions you draw from your observations. I would caution you, though, that people who say ‘I don’t agree with the studies because they don’t jive with my personal experience’ usually turn out to be wrong. This sort of error is tragically pervasive in my field (medicine).
How are they measuring foods for the glycemic index these days? I read somewhere that they used to do it by having a couple of people eat this or that, and measuring their blood sugar before and after. Seems awfully sloppy, particularly since the numbers weren’t precisely the same for each person (IIRC, I know, I owe you a cite, this was in a book on the glycemic index of various foods & I’ve probably donated it, I culled my collection pretty harshly).
If I had a magic wand, I’d wish myself an advanced degree in nutrition and human physiology – I swear, there ARE mechanisms that connect our food intake, our personal chemistry and our mental and emotional state. In fact, Time ran a little piece this week that said overweight people with apple-shaped bodies fare substantially better on the Atkins plan.
I have a similar issue with my kids’ school. My problem isn’t so much with the candy (although we limit the kids’ sweets, we do give them an occasional treat). They do come home with big bags of treats around the “candy” holidays but we end up throwing most of it out. My problem is that the parents just ignore the rule and the school doesn’t enforce it. When I first read the school handbook, I was glad that they encouraged healthy snacks, did not allow sweet, iced cupcakes for birthdays and limited sweets during holiday parties. Then I got pissed when my child kept coming home week after week talking about the cupcakes he had for another’s child’s birthday and brought home bags of treats around the holidays.
I cannot control what the other parents are doing and I can try to get the school to enforce the rules, but until then I just have to teach my kids that gorging themselves on candy and sweets is just going to make them feel like crap.