NUTRITION CHILDREN’S DIETS : Study Confirms Parental Views on Food Sugars

Yale University researchers claim to have confirmed what parents have long suspected: Children who eat sugar get a burst of adrenaline that can leave them cranky and jittery for several hours.

Pediatricians Timothy M. Jones and William V. Tamborlane are to present their results today to more than 3,000 doctors attending the annual meeting of the American Pediatric Society at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Neither doctor expects this study to resolve a longstanding scientific controversy over how sugar affects children’s behavior.

“I don’t think it takes fuel from the fire,” Tamborlane said Tuesday. “But it does have some interesting implications of how simple sugars could affect behavior.”

Over the last six months, Jones, Tamborlane and three other researchers fed glucose to 14 healthy children and nine healthy adults and monitored their response. Each consumed three-hundredths of an ounce of glucose per pound of body weight--roughly equivalent to eating “two iced cupcakes” for breakfast, Jones said.

The blood of both children and adults was tested every 10 minutes over five hours to measure glucose and adrenaline levels.

The body releases the hormone adrenaline, also known as epinephrine, to keep sugar levels in the blood from falling too low. Adrenaline also speeds up the heartbeat, narrows blood vessels, dilates airways and can cause tremors.

The researchers found that blood sugar levels in both children and adults followed the same pattern--rising sharply after the initial dose of glucose and then, three to four hours later, dropping to levels slightly below normal.

The children’s adrenaline levels after taking the glucose were 10 times higher than their levels before the sugar dose--and twice those of adults who had taken glucose, the scientists said. Also, 12 of the 14 children reported feeling weak, shaky and somewhat irritable as their adrenaline shot up, while just one adult reported these symptoms.

The results suggest that the hormonal change triggered by sugar is greater in children than adults, Jones and Tamborlane said.

They noted that increased adrenaline levels may lead to anxiety, difficulty concentrating and crankiness--the kind of crankiness associated with missing a meal.

Given that response, Jones added, the behavior of normally fidgety children could be dramatic if they ate a sugary meal.

“If a child is prone to having difficulty concentrating, the adrenaline response may tip the balance,” he said.

Tamborlane added: “If you found children were just eating cupcakes or sugar cereal at breakfast, and those kids were having trouble with their last class before lunch, there could be a connection.”

Both Tamborlane and Jones noted that their study covered only normal children. While consumption of sugar “could be a contributing factor” to hyperactive behavior, they have not studied that directly and so were reluctant to make broader statements about children’s behavior from this study, Tamborlane said.

The Yale researchers plan another study “under more realistic conditions” in the next year, in which children are to be monitored after “a breakfast of orange juice and doughnuts.”