– According to the research, it is not true that children are speeded by sugar. It has been tested in several different studies where they have given a group of children sugar and a group of sweeteners where no one knows what they got. No difference has been seen at all in their activity or cognition, says Emily Sonestedt, sugar researcher at Lund University and the University of Kristianstad.
The campers are skeptical
Those findings, however, do not give visitors to Årsunda Strandbad much of anything – there they have their own, anecdotal evidence.
– I think it is false. You get a lot of energy when you eat sugar. You have to use that energy somehow. Then you automatically become over-energetic, says Jörgen Larsson.
– I can only start from my own experiences and absolutely believe that children can become hyperactive from too much sugar, says Katarina Franzén.
Of the ten people that SVT spoke to, there is only one parent whose experience is consistent with the results of the sugar studies.
– I haven’t noticed any difference in the children’s behavior, says Emma Manneteg, who emphasizes, however, that she makes sure her children don’t eat too much sugar.
“Myth that has survived since the 80s”
Sugar researcher Emily Sonestedt believes that the image of sugar as a hyperactivator for children comes from parents mistakenly associating the children’s energetic behavior with the sugar they put into them, when in fact it may be about the context in which you find yourself.
– This myth has survived ever since the research was done in the 80s and 90s, and I think it’s because you simply expect children to be active or sped up when you give them sugar. But really, maybe it’s more about the whole situation – that you’re at a party or getting ice cream.