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Does sugar make kids more stabby?
By adamg on Tue, 10/25/2011 - 11:39am
Discovery reports on a Harvard School of Public Health study of Boston teens that found a link between soda intake and violence - although left unanswered is the question of whether the sugar makes them more violent or whether the violent consume more soda:
Twenty-three percent of teens who drank fewer than one soft drink a week reported carrying a weapon, for example, compared to 43 percent who drank five or more cans a week. And violence towards peers rose from 35 percent in the low-consumption group to 59 percent in the heaviest soda-drinkers.
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Comments
No definitive answers here
I would call this "generative research" - research that raises questions, not research that answers questions.
Too many scientists and far too many reporters look at a study and jump to a causal link. The problem is that soda consumption might be a proxy for any number of social influences, or may modify those social influences, or might be physiologically influenced.
If I were to hazard a guess (ahem, formulate a hypothesis), I'd bet that "high soda consumption" and "high violence toward peers" are both expressions of "low impulse control". That might be a good avenue of research to pursue.
swirlygrrl, did you read the
swirlygrrl, did you read the original research paper?
i think you jump to conclusions no too, in this case about scientists...
(chortle)
Yes, actually, before it was published. Like most papers, it was released on line about a month ahead of press. It isn't necessarily in the area I currently work in, but I have notification services set up on a variety of topics - including teenagers.
I will just assume that you are new here if you don't know what I get paid to do for a living.
"Jumping to Causality" is a huge problem that I see when I peer review health studies in my area - not about scientists, by scientists. I didn't see this so much in this paper itself, but in the reports about this paper ... but when the press office gets ahold of something ... then it gets in the press ... and simplifications make causal implications pop out everywhere!
My organization keeps a tight lid on these "losses to translation", but not all scientists or their organizations know how to keep it under control.
[/epiwonk]
Yeah, that was exactly my thinking
Both are signs of poor impulse control and/or a neglectful environment
(not that having access to soda or violent media are automatically neglectful, but just that in households where more parenting is going on, kids are more likely to be taught healthy eating and to have learned that violence is not OK).
The terrifying thing
Isn't any hypothetical relationship between soda and violence, but rather that nearly a quarter of teens ( at least) reported carrying a weapon!!! YIKES
Let's start concentrating on getting that percentage down and then worry about whether soda consumption is predictive or not.
Even Better!
That quarter was the LOW end of the percentage who reported carrying. The high was 43%, and I'm willing to bet that some who were carrying illegally lied that they weren't carrying, just in case.
Of course, some of the low end may have lied that they were carrying weapons because they felt it made them appear more badass.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Yeah, I was going to say, I
Yeah, I was going to say, I don't think having a soda makes people want to carry weapons. Feeling unsafe seems a more likely candidate.
Five cans of soda per week
is an average of less than one can per day. Doesn't sound like "heavy" soda consumption to me.
Now if it were five cans per day, that would be another story.
Ummmm
I've occasionally had more than five cans of soda a day.
Maybe it's okay because it's diet? I don't feel particularly more stabby on those days than others. But maybe it's because I'm too hopped upon caffeine to properly wield a stabby implement. :-)
All I know is...
...my Chinese neighbor wants the empty cans.
She's a very nice lady. I set all of our deposit containers aside for her.
So sugar in the diet causes
So sugar in the diet causes violent behavior? I'd look closely at consumers of those premium ice cream brands.
In my neighborhood
it was usually a combination of too much angel dust and/or alcohol that made kids more stabby.
A teenager drinks afew cans of soda in a week, stabs someone?
That doesn't make sense, imho. Chances are that a kid who goes out, stabs somebody, or commits some other type of violence on another person is already a violence-prone individual to begin with. This reminds me of the "twinkies defense" that was used by the then-acting mayor of San Francisco murdered Harvey Milk in cold blood, back in the late 1970's.